Manhattan DA to stop prosecuting sex workers – National & International News – THU 22Apr2021

NYC to stop prosecuting sex workers. State foster systems siphon $millions from kids. US hosts climate summit. Hopes dim for 53 on Indonesian sub.

NATIONAL NEWS

Manhattan DA to stop prosecuting sex workers

As part of a nationwide shift, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has announced that his office will no longer prosecute offenses related to prostitution. As a first step, Vance has asked a judge to dismiss 914 open cases of prostitution and unlicensed massage, as well as 5,080 cases of “loitering for the purposes of prostitution”. Some of these cases dated back as far as the 1970s.

Vance’s office clarified that the policy shift does not apply to prostitutes and sex traffickers. The office will continue to prosecute such offenders.

In a statement, Vance said, “Over the last decade, we’ve learned from those with lived experience and from our own experience on the ground. Criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers”.

Community activists applauded the decision. Various groups have lobbied for more lenient treatment for sex workers. They argue that the laws disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and LGBT individuals. Aside from this, it has been argued for years that laws criminalizing sex workers does nothing to protect sex workers or public health. Rather, such laws have the opposite effect.

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How state foster agencies take $millions from children in their care

Since the Reagan era, state foster care agencies have hired for-profit companies to mine Social Security benefits owed to children in state care. The private companies use various tactics to maximize the benefits due to the children, then makes those benefits payable to the state rather their intended recipients, the children themselves. These benefits can be in excess of $700 per month for the duration of a child’s time in foster care. Ultimately, many children then age out of foster care, having no assets to speak of and no idea that funds they would otherwise have had access to have been siphoned away from them, sometimes for years.

This practice is not illegal. Only one state, Maryland, has any laws prohibiting or limiting the practice. But in essence, this means that the children themselves are unwittingly paying for their own foster care. Foster care is a public service, which federal and state laws require the government to pay for.

These benefits can include death benefits (in the case of orphans), benefits for veterans’ dependents, and disability benefits for children with physical, mental or emotional issues. The private companies can even apply for benefits on behalf of children with disabilities, which then flow into state coffers.

Data from just 10 states shows that agencies collected $165 million in children’s benefits in 2018 alone. The agencies themselves justify the practice by saying that they would not otherwise have the funds to pay for these children’s care. However, foster care for children who are not eligible for these benefits are fully funded by the state and federal governments.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) says, “It’s like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. This is like confiscating someone’s Social Security benefits because they availed themselves of the fire department”. Raskin plans to introduce a bill in Congress to ban all states from taking foster children’s money to reimburse themselves for their care.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

US hosts climate summit

Today, President Joe Biden is hosting a climate summit in which 40 other world leaders are taking part. After Trump’s 2017 departure from the Paris Climate Accords, Biden is attempting to put the US at the forefront of the global climate fight once again. Participants in the summit, including the US itself, as well as the EU bloc, Japan, China and Russia have already vowed to cut emissions by 50% or more by 2030. The ambitious targets demonstrate a recognition of the global climate emergency, and the urgent steps needed to prevent or at least delay the worst case scenario.

One major controversy that has cropped up around the summit is a demand from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is demanding $1 billion a year in aid in exchange for reducing deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Celebrities, climate commentators, and critics of Bolsonaro’s government have urged Biden not to give Bolsonaro any funds unless Bolsonaro takes action first. In his three years in power, Bolsonaro has encouraged mass clearances of the rainforest for agricultural and mining purposes. Indigenous communities living in the rainforest say that Bolsonaro’s record of poor environmental stewardship and human rights abuses have left him devoid of any credibilty on the issue.

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Indonesia: 72 hours left to rescue 53 on lost submarine

Yesterday, an Indonesian submarine went missing in the Java Sea north of Bali. The Indonesia Navy say that searchers have roughly three days to find the sub and rescue the 53 submariners aboard before their oxygen runs out. At present, at least 400 people are taking part in the search. Neighboring countries Singapore and Malaysia have already dispatched ships. The US, Australia, France, and Germany have all offered to assist in the search.

Searchers have found an oil slick marking the spot of the sub’s last dive, and there a strong smell of diesel fuel in the area. Many already fear the worst. A firm that helped to refit the German-built sub nearly a decade ago say that the sub has a safe dive depth of about 656 feet. Beyond that depth, they say, the danger of the sub collapsing in on itself increases the deeper it goes. The Indonesian navy believes that the sub may have sunk to a depth of anywhere between 2000-2300 feet. If the sub is that deep, experts say this will be too deep for rescue teams to operate.

At the moment, the exact location of the sub has not yet been determined. Searchers have found a strong magnetic signal in the area where they believe the sub went down.

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