Welcome back to another edition of The Detour and Happy Juneteenth! For more information on the holiday and Juneteenth resources and reading materials, check out this great guide.
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PLUS: We’re introducing a new feature in our newsletter today! Throughout, you’ll notice a dark red “Detour” arrow that will take you deeper down into the story at hand. Frame’s articles feature interactive Detours that allow readers to dive into rabbit holes without leaving the article, and we wanted to bring that feature to our newsletter. We’d love to know what you think of the update by replying to this email or leaving a comment!
Without further ado, here’s what’s on deck this week:
🔥 Gas flaring emits more carbon each year then all of the UK. And it’s entirely preventable.
🇺🇳 Inside this year’s refugee team at the Olympics
🇺🇦 The Ukrainian word for freedom
But first, here’s a closer look at what’s been going on around the world lately:
Kelly Kimball for Frame. // Wikimedia Commons
130 - 4 — The distribution of senate votes that were overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in Thailand on Tuesday, making it the first nation in Southeast Asia to legalize gay marriage. In a formality, Thailand’s king will still need final approval of the law, which will then go into effect 120 days after it is published in Thailand’s Royal Gazette. (The Gazette is the online news hub of the Thai royal family, used to communicate formal announcements to the public.)
250 years — The approximate age of 29 bottles of immaculately preserved cherries and berries that archeologists found during a restoration project at George and Martha Washington’s, historic home, Mount Vernon.
Archeologists unearth 29 bottles of preserved fruit in Mount Vernon, VA, on May 16. // Source: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
“Finding what is essentially fresh fruit, 250 years later, is pretty spectacular,” Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon’s principal archaeologist, told the Associated Press in an interview. “All the stars sort of have to align in the right manner for that to happen.”
The archaeology team is now working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on DNA testing the fruit to uncover the specific type of cherries and berries, and if any of them can actually be used to grow plants today.
40 — The updated number of countries who have signed the Artemis Accords. On Tuesday, Lithuania joined the ranks of this cosmological crew in a special ceremony in Vilnius. Established by the U.S. in 2020, the Accords set out a list of uniting principles to guide the new age of space exploration. The signing comes at time of intensifying efforts worldwide to explore the darkest corners of the Moon and eventually land humans on Mars.
The partner nations that have signed the Artemis Accords. // Source: NASA
500,000+ — The approximate number of undocumented spouses married to American citizens in the United States today. This group will soon be impacted by U.S. President Joe Biden’s two new executive actions that will allow them to apply to live and work in the country legally without having to leave, thereby streamlining their path to residency and citizenship. But they have to meet certain requirements first:
Have already lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years
File necessary citizenship paperwork
Pass a criminal background check
This sweeping immigration order — the largest since the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative — will also include the ~50,000 children of these undocumented spouses.
And now onto the main course — Nigeria is home to Africa's largest gas reserves and is ranked seventh globally for the sheer volume of gas it burns in a process known as gas flaring. Gas flaring occurs when oil companies burn gas found during oil extraction instead of storing and using it. This decades-long practice contributes to climate change and creates a slew of hazards for Nigerians, especially in the country’s gas-rich southern Niger Delta region, writes Nigeria-based journalist Abdulwaheed Sofiullahi.
Screenshots from Frame’s latest story.
Today, two million Nigerians live within just 2.5 miles of a gas flaring site. To understand how and why the practice impacts their lives, Sofiullahi traveled throughout the Niger Delta to interview locals from the Mgbede community, Rivers State, and elsewhere and documented the unique challenges they face.
How is the practice of gas flaring changing in Nigeria? In 2021, then-Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari approved the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and pledged to end gas flaring by 2030. While not perfect, experts say the PIA could be a game changer for natural resource management in the country, and as a model worldwide.
But how? The Act mandates that gas companies report gas flare data monthly and pay penalties if they flare outside of an emergency or safety-related practice, lest they pay up to a $100,000 fine and risk getting their permits or licenses revoked. The money from penalties will then be used to remediate the environment and relieve affected communities. For context, for the past two decades, the volume of gas flaring in Nigeria has been trending downwards.
On Thursday, June 20 — World Refugee Day occurs. As the Paris Olympics nears, the United Nations has already assembled its IOC Refugee Olympic Team comprised completely of refugees originating from 11 different countries. This year, 36 athletes will compete across 12 sports, including Afghanistan’s first woman breakdancer, Manizha Talash.
Manizha Talash, Afghanistan’s first Olympic breakdancer. // Source: International Olympic Committee
On Friday, June 21 — The highly anticipated soccer documentary, “Copa 71”, is released. The film decodes the 1971 Women's Soccer World Cup, which had a record-breaking 110,000 people in attendance despite attempts to suppress it and FIFA refusing to recognize it as an official World Cup. The Guardian calls it “fantastically fun,” which is my personal favorite compliment to give someone.
Also on Friday, June 21 — Chile’s National Day of Indigenous Peoples occurs. In 2021, the country approved the holiday to commemorate its Indigenous community, which makes up over 12% of its population.
A short primer on the Indigenous rights struggle in Chile: This year’s National Day of Indigenous Peoplesarrives amid heightened tensions between activists groups within the Mapuche community, which is the country’s largest Indigenous community, and landowners and forestry companies across Chile’s southern regions of Biobío and Araucanía. In recent years, a motivated generation of Mapuche youth have fought to return their claim to this region, saying it is their ancestral land.
But Chilean police forces have met their efforts with opposition and violence, even forging evidence against Indigenous activists. The result has been an all-out war between the contending parties: Armed Mapuche groups have committed violent attacks against Chilean forestry companies and farming estates, and vice-versa. La Tercera, one of Chile’s main newspapers, has covered this issue for years. You can dive into their Spanish-language coverage here.
On Thursday, June 20 — Eid al-Adha ends worldwide. Approximately 1.8 billion Muslims celebrate this holiday, which began Sunday evening. The holiday commemorates the Islamic tradition of the Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son in order to obey God’s command.
The holiday also coincides with the end of the Hajj religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia (this week reports emerged of more than 500 Hajj pilgrims dying, potentially from extreme heat in the region).
In Ukrainian, there’s a word, volia (воля), which means both freedom and will. It’s a powerful double meaning that suggests that freedom means having will, the deep desire to forge your own path and accomplish what you want.
The word has picked up even more cultural wind since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Ukrainians surprised the world by holding back the Russian Army’s assault on the country.
Ukrainians around the country channeled volia, a quality of self-determination that’s baked into Ukraine’s history and featured in its national anthem:
Ukraine’s glory and will (volia) have not yet perished, Still upon us, young brothers, fate shall smile. Our enemies shall vanish, like dew in the sun. We too shall rule, brothers, in our country. — Excerpt from Ukraine’s national anthem (1862-1863)
When I see volia it makes me think of all the ways people’s will, and freedom, are being hijacked in myriad ways today. Whether it be the fundamental freedom to live free from bodily harm in conflicts burning around the world — and thus be able to exercise the will to live, love, achieve goals and desires. Or whether it’s the less explicit ways people’s will and freedom are being hijacked by powerful algorithms and devices that control our attention, taking away the freedom to exercise our true will.
— Ben
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