44 Saturday April 9 2022 | the timesWo r l d
A city in California could begin paying
transgender and non-binary residents
up to $900 a month as part of a univer-
sal basic income project.
Palm Springs has approved $200,000
in funding towards the pilot scheme to
guarantee recipients money without
any stipulations on how to spend it.
Two local organisations also aim to
apply for some of the $35 million Cali-
fornia state funds that were set aside for
the programme.
The desert city’s proposal comes
against a wave of laws across the US
that LGBTQ advocates say are rolling
back transgender rights. Supporters say
Trans residents offered cash aid
‘as they are more likely to be poor’
United States
Keiran Southern Los Angeles
the project is needed because LGBTQ
residents suffer disproportionately
from poverty and mental ill health.
The city, about 107 miles east of Los
Angeles, has a history of advancing gay
rights. Christy Holstege, the council
member who brought the proposal for
consideration, said: “Palm Springs has
been a place where LGBTQ people
have fled for decades to seek sanctuary.
“Proud that we are on the front lines
of supporting the trans and non-binary
community, especially when they’re
under attack throughout the country.”
Queer Works, an advocacy group, is
one of the organisations backing the
project. Jacob Rostovsky, its founder
and chief executive, said the pro-
gramme would provide monthly pay-ments of $600 to $900 to 20 recipients.
Another 20 participants would serve as
a control group, getting social services
but not the monthly payments.
“This is a chance to help individuals
receive money that we can think of as a
subsidy — to subsidise the gap in
income that the trans and non-binary
community faces due to having some of
the highest levels of unemployment in
this country,” Rostovsky, who is trans-
gender, said at a council meeting last
month.
Lisa Middleton, 69, the city’s mayor
who is also transgender, backed the
scheme but had reservations. She said:
“There are a significant number of dis-
advantaged people of colour... that I
would also like to provide help for.” Themayor highlighted the number of
people in the region living in poverty
and said she doubted the project could
help all those who needed it. “I have
been wrong many times,” Middleton
said. “I could be wrong again.”
Universal basic income was once an
obscure political concept but has drift-
ed into the mainstream. Andrew Yang,
the 2020 presidential candidate, made
it a key part of his campaign.
Similar schemes are becoming more
common. West Hollywood launched a
pilot programme in February to give
financial assistance to low-income
LGBTQ residents older than 50 and
last year San Francisco considered
developing a basic income scheme for
transgender residents.Israeli PM gives forces
free rein to end killings
Israel Naftali Bennett has given
the security forces free rein to
respond to a wave of terrorist
killings. A total of 13 people have
been killed in attacks since March- The prime minister said: “We
are granting full freedom of
action to the army, the Shin Bet
[the domestic security agency]
and all security forces in order to
defeat the terror.” In the most
recent killings two friends in Tel
Aviv were shot while at a bar.
Eytam Magini, 27, was due to
celebrate his engagement with
family and friends, including the
other victim, Tomer Morad. The
attacker was shot dead by special
forces in Jaffa, the historic Arab
district of Tel Aviv. (AFP)
American climber dies
in mountain avalanche
Iceland An US tourist died and
two others were seriously injured
in an avalanche while climbing
Svarfadardalur mountain, near
the village of Dalvik on the north
of the island, police said. All
three, who were in their thirties,
were experienced climbers. One
of them sent a call for help and
about 130 rescuers arrived at the
scene. The two survivors are
being treated in hospital. (AFP)Man killed in Second
World War bomb blast
Czech Republic A Second World
War bomb exploded in the city of
Ostrava after a man tried to cut it
during excavation work, killing
him and injuring another. Police
said the man used an angle
grinder to cut the aerial bomb,
which he probably mistook for an
old sewerage pipe. Local media
reported that a man aged 49 died
and a man aged 31 suffered a
minor head injury. (AFP)Smoking stubbed out
on Barcelona beaches
Spain Smoking will be banned on
all beaches in Barcelona from
July after a pilot project last year
involving four out of ten beaches.
Several Spanish regions imposed
bans in 2020 to curb Covid-19.
The Balearic Islands, including
Mallorca, adopted the measure
for environmental reasons. Partial
or total bans are in place in the
Canary Islands, Andalusia,
Galicia and Valencia. (Reuters)P
erformers dressed as large
green balls with red spikes
sang about the coronavirus
in keeping with the
tradition of comic skits at
the 137th annual dinner of
Washington’s Gridiron Club.
Anthony Fauci, the chief White
House pandemic adviser, was among
maskless guests who watched a
rendition of Covid Blues with the
lines: “Doctor, doctor: We shut the
schools/ But that did not stop our
Covid blues/ We lose voters every
day/ Can we just all throw those
masks away?”Bipartisan political club’s plea for civility ends with coronavirus blues
The joke has come back to haunt
the club, an elite group limited to 65
veteran White House journalists.
Founded in 1885 for “prominent
newspapermen”, it opened up to
women in 1975 and TV reporters
more recently. One by one its guests
from last Saturday’s knees-up are
testing positive.
Two Democratic congressmen,
Adam Schiff, 61, from California,
and Joaquin Castro, 47, from Texas,
announced their diagnoses three
days after the dinner, the first since
2019 due to pandemic cancellations.
Next came Merrick Garland, 69,
the attorney-general, followed by
fellow cabinet member Gina
Raimondo, 51, the commerce
secretary. They were followed by
Jamal Simmons, communications
director for Kamala Harris, the
vice-president, and Susan Collins, a
Republican senator from Maine.
The number of infections from the
650 guests, who had to provide proofof vaccination but not a negative test
result, was at 37 yesterday. Tom
DeFrank, the club president, had
hoped for a return to normal service
but said the pandemic was not the
only event that had upended
Washington life in recent years.
“I have a bit of an institutional
memory, having cut my teeth on
Gerald Ford, who could be very
partisan but prided himself on
compassion and conciliation for the
common good,” said DeFrank, 76,
who spent his career covering the
White House, first for Newsweek and
then the New York Daily News.
“I’ve never seen an atmosphere so
toxic as today,” he said. “Ronald
Reagan used to say something like,
there’s no limit to what a man can
do if he doesn’t mind who gets the
credit. These days it’s almost like you
can’t do anything without having
someone to blame. The environment
is counterproductive and that’s a
shame.”David
Charter
washingtonHe regarded the Gridiron as one
of the last bastions where figures
from both parties could relax
together. The dinner has been
addressed by every president since
Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd
occupant of the White House.
President Biden, 79, who spoke in
person as vice-president, made a
video address last week, ribbing
DeFrank: “By the way Tom, don’t
you think you’re a little old to be a
president?” Some jokes are
legendary, such as JFK’s gag about
appointing his younger brother
Bobby as attorney-general: “I can’t
see that it’s wrong to give him a little
legal experience before he goes out
to practise law.”
In 2014 President Obama, facing
conspiracy theories about his
birthplace, remarked: “Of course I
love America. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t
have moved from Kenya.”
Donald Trump came once in 2018
when he joked: “Nobody doesself-deprecating humour better than
I do — no one is even close.”
DeFrank had a few “zingers” of
his own in his speech, delivered by
tradition in the dark (although he
admits he does not actually know
why the opening address takes place
with the lights off ). “There are some
who question what Vice-President
Harris brings to the table,” he said.
“That’s unfair. She’s brought
California gas prices to everyone.”
He ended his speech with a plea
for the return of another era. “I’m
reminded of something President
Gerald Ford told me from a hospital
bed five weeks before his death. He
said, ‘Come back again.’ Like Jerry
Ford, we aim to strike a tone of
civility and mutual respect. We hope
we’re a link between the way we
were and the way we can be again,
somehow. We need good humour
and good fellowship. And more than
ever, we need the unity that can
come from both.”ARTUR WIDAK/NURPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCKHerd mentality Llamas make the most of the lush pasture around a salt lake in the Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Reserve in the Arequipa province of Peru