All posts tagged: refuge

Trump admin sets date for auction of drilling rights in Alaska refuge

Trump admin sets date for auction of drilling rights in Alaska refuge

Published by Sam Flores

The Trump administration has officially scheduled an auction for the rights to drill in a controversial spot: a wildlife refuge in Alaska. The auction, in which companies will be able to bid for the right to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is set for June 5. The Trump administration declined to immediately say how many acres of land would be made available for lease. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management said this information would be available on the bureau’s website early next week. Republicans, in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act, required the government to hold four oil and gas lease sales in the refuge. The issue of whether to drill there has been contested for many years. The refuge is home to grizzly bears, polar bears, gray wolves, caribou and more than 200 species of birds and contains land considered sacred by the Gwich’in people. Opponents of drilling there say that energy production could cause harm to the animals and land. Supporters say it will bolster the local economy. “President Trump has …

Grief, Loss, Abundance, Joy: Finding Refuge in Harsh Times

Grief, Loss, Abundance, Joy: Finding Refuge in Harsh Times

Published by Jenni Sidey

These days, when our world is deluged by stories of grief and loss, I’m reminded of a famous Buddhist teaching story: One day, a woman who cannot accept the sudden death of her child brings her son’s body to the Buddha. She asks the Enlightened One to revive her son. The Buddha understands the mother’s predicament. He tells her he can do this, but first she must bring him a mustard seed from a home in which no one has lost a loved one. Desperate to restore her child, the mother went knocking door to door, inquiring. At the first house, an elder had died; at the second, a child. After many doors, the bereaved woman realized the dead outnumber the living; no one escapes loss. This realization became the first stage of her awakening and her acceptance of mortality. As humans, we love and suffer when those we love die. How do we embrace these two profound realities and maintain our emotional balance? How do we keep the embers of faith in the future …

Exiled cricketer says Iranian women players face emotional toll amid refuge in Australia

Exiled cricketer says Iranian women players face emotional toll amid refuge in Australia

Published by Sam Flores

MELBOURNE, March 11 : The Iranian women soccer players offered asylum in Australia face emotional upheaval and a struggle to come to terms with their separation from loved ones at home, a cricketer who fled Afghanistan’s Taliban regime told Reuters on Wednesday. Australia granted humanitarian visas on Tuesday to five Iranian footballers after they sought asylum, fearing persecution if they returned home after they failed to sing the national anthem at a Women’s Asian Cup match. Another player and support staffer accepted the Australian offer of aid but one changed her mind and decided to return home amid the U.S.-Israeli air-war in Iran, the government said on Wednesday. The saga reminded cricketer Tooba Khan Sawari of the dislocation she felt as a sporting refugee after fleeing Afghanistan when the Taliban swept to power in 2021. Sawari was one of a number of women athletes offered asylum in Australia after fearing for their safety in Afghanistan. For Sawari, the hardest part of resettling was not the practical challenge of learning a new language or navigating an unfamiliar reality, but …