DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST

Buffalo mayoral candidate says hardship prepared her for job
By CAROLYN THOMPSONyesterday

FILE - This Wednesday June 23, 2021 file photo shows Democratic Buffalo mayoral primary candidate India Walton as she delivers her victory speech after a primary defeat of incumbent Byron Brown in Buffalo, N.Y. After upsetting Byron Brown in the June race, a victory in November would put a self-described democratic socialist and, for the first time, a woman, at the helm of New York's second-largest city. (Robert Kirkham/The Buffalo News via AP, File)

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — If a majority of voters, along with the four-term incumbent, mostly ignored political newcomer India Walton’s campaign for mayor during the Democratic primary, they’re paying attention now.

After upsetting Byron Brown in the June race, a victory in November would put a self-described democratic socialist and, for the first time, a woman, at the helm of New York’s second-largest city.

Walton’s vault to the doorstep of City Hall may have seemed unlikely while growing up on Buffalo’s impoverished East side and becoming a mother at age 14.

There has been turmoil for the registered nurse and community activist, including financial challenges that she says are all too familiar to many would-be constituents in the Rust Belt city. All, she says, have helped prepare her for this moment.

“I believe that the people closest to the problem are also those closest to the solution,” she said.

Once home to a thriving manufacturing base that over time evaporated, along with nearly half the population, Buffalo’s story in more recent years has been about revival. The waterfront was transformed and old industrial buildings given new life as offices, restaurants and living spaces that appeal to young, educated newcomers.

But there remain residents and neighborhoods that feel passed by, and Walton says that while she is eager to work with long-time community and elected leaders, her success shows there is room to challenge the establishment.

“I think it’s important to note that the people of Buffalo are ready for progressive change,” she said. “We must work together to do what is best for our city. And also we are saying no more to the status quo.”

Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of socialist magazine Jacobin, said enthusiasm for Walton could suggest openings in similar cities nationwide.

“There’s some irony that you’re seeing a resurgence of socialism now when these cities are facing a lot of challenges,” Sunkara said, “and ordinary working-class residents are looking for answers and they’re looking for something different.”

Since shocking Brown in a low-key primary that about 80% of registered Democrats skipped, Walton has confronted questions about her past, revealing she was in an abusive marriage and is a survivor of domestic abuse. Her premature twins inspired her to get her GED and become a registered nurse in the same hospital where they were born.

While in her early 20s, she was accused by the Department of Social Services of food stamp fraud and made to repay a $295 overpayment. She and her ex-husband also were the subject of a $749 state tax lien, which included $562 in back taxes plus penalties, WKBW reported.

“We call it the ‘poor tax,’ right?” Walton told the station. “Late fees and fines that occur because of things that you are really unable to do because of your financial situation.”

She was arrested at the hospital where she worked in 2014 after missing a court appearance related to a coworker’s order of protection, The Buffalo News reported. Walton said the notice to appear had been mailed to her ex-husband’s home and that the violation eventually was dismissed.

Her most recent work has been to help establish and run a land trust to protect affordable housing in a neighborhood threatened with gentrification by the city’s expanding medical campus.

Sochie Nnaemeka, state director of the Working Families Party, said Walton ran a campaign “rooted in her lived experience” that appealed to poor and working-class voters who felt slighted by the incumbent’s strategy of refusing to debate or seriously acknowledge his challengers.

Walton had 500 volunteers for a primary effort that was capped by nearly 19,000 phone calls the night before the June 22 vote.

Although she had considered running for state Assembly, Walton said she saw an opening to challenge Brown during Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Specifically, when cameras captured a young Black man throwing a burning basket through a Buffalo City Hall window, Brown, who like Walton is Black, publicly called him an “idiot.”

“Our mayor should have said, ‘This is a young person who was expressing their frustration. Let’s call them in and do some problem-solving together,’” Walton said, “and not disparage, dismiss and write off a young person who had some very valid concerns.”

Backed by the Buffalo Teachers Federation and Democratic Socialists of America, she favors removing police officers from most mental health and routine traffic calls and reallocating funding, but shies away from using the term defunding police.

After her primary showing, Walton fielded praise from other progressive lawmakers, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of New York City.

Brown is pursuing a rematch in November. In announcing his write-in campaign, he said city residents oppose having a “radical socialist” lead the city he has governed for 15 years.

But “we have enjoyed many things that could be considered socialism during the pandemic that helped us get through,” countered Walton, “the economic stimulus, free health care, SNAP benefits for families with children.”

“These are things that we all enjoy and appreciate and we’ve proven that it can happen,” she said. “We just need to scale up.”

WAGE THEFT
Bonus pay for essential workers varied widely across states


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Crosby Smith, care provider at Ludeman Developmental Center, a state home for the developmentally disabled, poses for a portrait near the center premise, Thursday, July 8, 2021 in Park Forest, Ill. Smith and his fiancee were among numerous staff and residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center who contracted the virus last year. He said the hazard money helped pay down credit cards and avoid further debt when buying clothing and shoes. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — For putting their health on the line during the coronavirus pandemic, prison guards in Missouri got an extra $250 per paycheck. Teachers in Georgia received $1,000 bonuses. And in Vermont, nurses, janitors, retail workers and many others got as much as $2,000.

Over the past year, about one-third of U.S. states have used federal COVID-19 relief aid to reward workers considered essential who dutifully reported to jobs during the pandemic. But who qualified for those bonuses -- and how much they received — varied widely, according to an Associated Press review. While some were paid thousands of dollars, others with similar jobs elsewhere received nothing.

As society reopens, momentum to provide pandemic hazard pay appears to be fading — even though the federal government has broadened the ability of state and local governments to provide retroactive pay under a $350 billion aid package enacted by President Joe Biden in March.

So far, only a few states have committed to paying workers extra with money from the American Rescue Plan.

Florida is giving $1,000 bonuses to teachers and first-responders. Minnesota plans to distribute $250 million in bonuses to essential workers, though a special panel won’t determine who qualifies until later this year.

This past week, Hawaii Gov. David Ige vetoed a budget provision to pay teachers $2,200 bonuses. The Democratic governor said lawmakers didn’t have the authority to tell the state Department of Education how to use the federal money.

Some states remain reluctant to enact bonus programs.

An Oregon proposal to use federal pandemic aid to provide bonuses of up to $2,000 for essential workers failed to make it into the budget that took effect July 1, despite a union lobbying campaign that included thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls to lawmakers. The proposal would have covered workers in numerous fields, including education, health care, public safety and transportation.

“I don’t think anyone was opposed to it,” said Melissa Unger, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 503. But “no one prioritized it.”

Although states have until the end of 2024 to decide how to spend the latest federal aid, some advocates worry the realistic window for providing worker bonuses may be closing as more parts of society re-open.

“Unfortunately, the longer you delay doing it, the less it’s going to be on the top of minds of voters and those policymakers,” said Molly Kinder, a fellow at the nonprofit Brookings Institution who tracks pandemic hazard pay policies.

Premium pay is one of just several options provided to states under Biden’s aid package. States also can use the money to backfill budget holes, help businesses and households affected by the economic downturn, fund certain infrastructure projects and pay for public health programs such as COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

Illinois lawmakers used the federal money for dozens of initiatives in the budget that took effect July 1 — from $75,000 for a high school mentoring and violence prevention program to $200 million for hospitals. Nothing was earmarked for extra pandemic pay, even though Illinois had paid it in the past.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration provided a temporary 12% pay boost last year to nearly 24,000 state workers whose jobs put them at risk of contracting COVID-19. Most of the $62 million cost was covered with federal funds.

“Morale-wise, that was a critical thing for my co-workers and I,” said Crosby Smith, a care provider at a state home for the developmentally disabled near Chicago. “Because at that time, when COVID hit our facility ... we felt kind of abandoned.”

Smith and his fiancee were among numerous staff and residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center who contracted the virus last year. He said the hazard money helped pay down credit cards and avoid further debt when buying clothing and shoes.

Most states that have provided COVID-19 hazard pay used money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act signed by then-President Donald Trump in March 2020. While some states limited payments to particular public employees, others passed out money to a wide range of private-sector workers deemed to be doing important jobs.

Louisiana spent more than $38 million last year providing $250 payments to more than 152,000 “frontline workers” earning less than $50,000 annually, according to state data provided to the AP. Health care workers received the largest share of the money, followed by grocery store workers and law enforcement personnel. But payments also went to gas station workers, child-care providers, janitors, bus drivers and others.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, used $50 million in federal aid for grants to over 600 businesses to provide a temporary $3 hourly boost to employees earning less than $20 an hour. Health care providers got most of the money, followed by the food industry, according to state data provided to the AP. But millions of dollars also went to cleaning companies and private security firms.

By contrast, South Dakota limited hazard pay to state workers and only for the time they were potentially exposed to COVID-19. One therapy assistant got an extra 40 cents, a pharmacist received $1.80 and a maintenance supervisor got $4, according to state data provided to the AP.

In some states, the cost of hazard pay programs far exceeded initial expectations.

Missouri originally budgeted about $24 million in federal aid to provide an extra $250 per two-week paycheck for state employees working in close-contact institutions such as prisons, mental health facilities and veterans nursing homes. The stipend applied to anyone without unscheduled absences at any facility with at least one COVID-19 case — ultimately covering a lot more people for a much longer period than policymakers had anticipated at the onset of the pandemic.

Missouri ended up paying more than $73 million in hazard stipends to more than 18,000 employees, trigging an additional $24 million in fringe costs such as pension payments and federal taxes, according to state data provided to the AP. The payments ended June 30, and the state has no immediate plans to resume them.

“Without a doubt, it was worth it,” said Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican. “Some people did some incredible jobs in this state to stay the course and to stay in the line of duty.”

Vermont’s hazard pay program also swelled in cost. Last August, the state allotted $28 million of federal funds to pay up to $2,000 to health care employees who worked during the early stages of the pandemic. It later added $22 million to expand the program to retail and grocery workers, child care providers, janitors, trash collectors and others. When those funds were depleted, the state added $10 million more to cover all eligible applicants.

Employees in Vermont’s retail and grocery industries received nearly a third of the total money, almost matching the amount that went to health care fields, according to data provided to the AP.

Demand was high, in part, because Republican Gov. Phil Scott encouraged hesitant big businesses, such as Walmart, to apply on behalf of their employees, said Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. He said consumer spending spiked around the time the payments were distributed.

“The primary goal was to say thank you to those frontline workers, but it had that nice benefit as well of getting the money into the economy,” Pieciak said.

Israel’s SpaceIL secures funds for new lunar mission


FILE - In this July 10, 2018 file photo, Opher Doron, general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' space division, speaks beside the SpaceIL lunar module, during a press tour of their facility near Tel Aviv, Israel. SpaceIL, the nonprofit Israeli initiative whose spacecraft crashed on the moon two years ago, said Sunday,, July 11, 2021 that it has secured $70 million in funding to make a second attempt at a lunar landing. (AP Photo/Ilan Ben Zion, File)


JERUSALEM (AP) — SpaceIL, the nonprofit Israeli initiative whose spacecraft crashed on the moon two years ago, said Sunday that it has secured $70 million in funding to make a second attempt at a lunar landing.

SpaceIL said the new pledges means that it has raised almost all of the $100 million it estimates is needed for the mission to meet its 2024 launch target.

SpaceIL said the funding would come from South African-Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, who bankrolled much of the first mission, French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi and South African philanthropist Martin Moshal, co-founder of venture capital firm Entree Capital.

The first “Beresheet,” or “Genesis” spacecraft, built by SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, crashed into the moon moments before touchdown in April 2019, falling short in its attempt to become the first privately funded lunar landing.

According to the Davidson Institute, a branch of the Weizmann Institute of Science research university in Israel, the spacecraft suffered a string of technical malfunctions. That included damage to the star trackers, a type of navigation tool, failure of computer systems and engine failure.

The new mission, to be called Beresheet 2, was first announced in late 2020 and plans to set new global space records through a double landing on the moon and the installment of the lightest ever moon landers, each weighing 60 kg (132 pounds) without fuel.

It will be composed of three spacecraft — an orbiter and two landers — with the mission hoping to follow China in becoming only the second to successfully land on the far side of the moon.

The orbiter, known as the mothership, is set to remain in space for years, serving as a platform for educational science activities through a remote connection that allows students from around the world to participate in deep-space research.

“The Beresheet project is my life’s mission, so I decided to take it up again. I plan to do everything that is within my power to take Israel back to the moon, this time for a historic double landing,” said Kahn, who is chairman of SpaceIL.

ECOCIDE
Tree DNA helps convict Washington timber thief after fire

July 9, 2021

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal jury has convicted a timber thief who authorities said started a large forest fire in Washington state, a case that prosecutors said marked the first time tree DNA had been introduced in a federal trial.

The jury deliberated for about seven hours before convicting Justin Andrew Wilke, 39, on Thursday of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, and trafficking and attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Washington said in a news release.

The wood he sold to a mill in the city of Tumwater had been harvested from private property with a valid permit, Wilke said. But a research geneticist for the U.S. Forest Service, Richard Cronn, testified that the wood he sold genetically matched the remains of three poached trees.

Wilke used gasoline to destroy a wasp’s nest in the base of a maple tree he was stealing, prosecutors said, though jurors did not convict him of charges related to the fire. Some witnesses testified that, although Wilke was standing next to the nest when the fire began, they did not actually see his actions in the dark.

Wilke and others conducted an illegal logging operation in the Elk Lake area of the Olympic National Forest, near Hood Canal, between April and August 2018, according to records filed in the case. He poached maple trees prized as wood for musical instruments and brought them to lumber mills.

In July 2018, a man who had just been released from prison, Shawn Williams, joined the conspiracy; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than two years in prison.

In August 2018, the group decided to cut the maple tree that had the wasp’s nest near the base, prosecutors said. The poachers sprayed insecticide and gasoline and then lit the nest on fire — starting a 5.2-square-mile (13.4-square-kilometer) wildfire that came to be dubbed the “Maple Fire,” according to authorities.

Firefighting efforts cost about $4.2 million.

Williams testified during the trial that it was Wilke who set the blaze, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“When people steal trees from our public lands, they are stealing a beautiful and irreplaceable resource from all of us and from future generations,” Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said in a news release. “That theft, coupled with the sheer destruction of the forest fire that resulted from this activity, warrants federal criminal prosecution.”

Wilke faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in October.

Volvo to resume production at Virginia plant despite strike
an hour ago

FILE - In a Jan. 6, 2011, file photo, workers install parts on a truck on the Volvo truck assembly line at the Volvo plant in Dublin, Va. A tentative labor deal between Volvo Trucks North America and a union representing nearly 3,000 workers who have gone on strike twice in 2021 at the Virginia truck plant was rejected by the striking workers, late Friday, July 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)


DUBLIN, Va. (AP) — Volvo Trucks North America says it will restart production at a plant in southwestern Virginia on Monday despite an ongoing strike and the lack of a labor deal between the company and a union representing nearly 3,000 workers.

The company said in a news release that it will implement terms and conditions of a tentative agreement endorsed by leaders of the United Auto Workers union on July 1. Workers at the tractor-trailer assembly plant in Dublin had rejected that tentative pact.

Returning employees “will immediately receive the wage increases and benefits outlined in the July 1 agreement, except for the ratification bonuses that would be paid on contract ratification,” the company said.

Brian Rothenberg, a UAW spokesperson, said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday evening that the “strike is ongoing.”

“The UAW is evaluating the company’s position and evaluating our legal options,” he wrote. “A new vote is scheduled Wednesday for the bargaining unit members on the company’s last, best and final offer.”

Volvo says the 1.6 million-square-foot (nearly 150,000-square-meter) Dublin plant is the largest manufacturer of Volvo tractor-trailer trucks in the world. It is one of the largest private sector employers in the region, with approximately 3,300 employees, some 2,900 of whom are represented by the UAW.

The previous contract, reached in 2016, was to have expired in mid-March. Negotiations began in February. Unionized workers went on strike from April 17 to 30 and returned to work as negotiations resumed. UAW members rejected a proposed contract in May. The company announced another tentative agreement later that month, but it was rejected June 6.

“The ongoing strike — which we continue to believe is unnecessary — is hurting our customers, and has already set back our project to expand and upgrade the facility,” NRV Vice President and General Manager Franky Marchand said in a statement last week. “No one is gaining from the current situation, and we will consider all options related to the bargaining process.”

The Volvo Group is the only heavy-duty truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its trucks and engines for the North American market in the U.S., according to Volvo. It said the plant is undergoing a $400 million investment for technology upgrades, site expansion and preparation for future products, including the Volvo VNR Electric truck.

It added the plant has added 1,100 jobs since the current union agreement was implemented in 2016 and is on track to have a net increase of approximately 600 positions in 2021.

Schumer wants NRA investigated for bankruptcy fraud

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and MICHAEL R. SISAK

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference in New York, Monday, June 28, 2021. Schumer on Sunday, July 11, 2021 called on the Justice Department to investigate the National Rifle Association for bankruptcy fraud, saying the financially stable gun-rights group abused the system when it sought bankruptcy protection in the wake of a New York lawsuit seeking to put it out of business. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, file)


NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday called on the Justice Department to investigate the National Rifle Association for bankruptcy fraud, saying the financially stable gun-rights group abused the system when it sought bankruptcy protection in the wake of a New York lawsuit seeking to put it out of business.

A judge rejected the NRA’s bankruptcy case in May, ruling the nonprofit organization had not acted in good faith. NRA leaders made clear that the organization was “in its strongest financial condition in years” and was seeking bankruptcy protection so it could changes its state of incorporation from New York to gun-friendly Texas.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the NRA’s continued heavy spending on advertising criticizing proposed gun control measures and the nomination of gun control lobbyist David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives are further evidence that its bankruptcy filing was inspired by legal, not financial, concerns.

“They recently told the judicial branch of government that they are bankrupt after the lawsuit by Tish James, and at the same time they’re saying they’re bankrupt, they’re spending millions of dollars on ads to stop universal background checks,” Schumer said, referencing New York Attorney General Letitia James. “That demands an investigation by the Justice Department.”

The NRA said it was working on a statement. The Justice Department declined comment.

The organization filed for bankruptcy protection in January, months after James sued the NRA, seeking its dissolution over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures. That lawsuit is ongoing.

In dismissing the NRA’s bankruptcy case, Judge Harlin Hale wrote that it appeared “less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme.”

Schumer, speaking to reporters Sunday, highlighted a $2 million advertising blitz the NRA announced in April, aimed at fighting gun control proposals, while the bankruptcy case was still pending. The organization said it was placing ads on TV and digital platforms, sending out mailers and holding town hall meetings in at least 12 states.

In West Virginia, Schumer said, the organization spent $250,000 on TV ads encouraging people to call U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and tell him to reject Chipman’s confirmation. Chipman, a former ATF agent, has worked as a policy adviser at an organization that supports gun control.

“How can you say you’re bankrupt at the same time you have millions of dollars to spend on ads throughout the country trying to prevent universal background checks fundraising and other things that will stop the killings on the streets?” Schumer said.

“The bottom line is the NRA shot itself in the foot when they declared bankruptcy and still have millions of dollars,” he said.

QAnon has receded from social media -- but it’s just hiding

By BARBARA ORTUTAY

July 9, 2021

The Facebook app is shown on a smart phone, Friday, April 23, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Since the start of the year, Twitter and Facebook have removed tens of thousands of accounts, groups and pages dedicated to the QAnon conspiracy theory. But QAnon is far from winding down. Federal intelligence officials recently warned that its adherents could commit more violence, like the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)


On the face of it, you might think that the QAnon conspiracy has largely disappeared from big social media sites. But that’s not quite the case.

True, you’re much less likely to find popular QAnon catchphrases like “great awakening,” “the storm” or “trust the plan” on Facebook these days. Facebook and Twitter have removed tens of thousands of accounts dedicated to the baseless conspiracy theory, which depicts former President Donald Trump as a hero fighting a secret battle against a sect of devil-worshipping pedophiles who dominate Hollywood, big business, the media and government.

Gone are the huge “Stop the Steal” groups that spread falsehoods about the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. Trump is gone as well, banned from Twitter permanently and suspended from posting on Facebook until 2023.

But QAnon is far from winding down. Federal intelligence officials recently warned that its adherents could commit more violence, like the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. At least one open supporter of QAnon has been elected to Congress. In the four years since someone calling themselves “Q” started posting enigmatic messages on fringe internet discussions boards, QAnon has grown up.

That’s partly because QAnon now encompasses a variety of conspiracy theories, from evangelical or religious angles to alleged pedophilia in Hollywood and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, said Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab who focuses on domestic extremism. “Q-specific stuff is sort of dwindling,” he said. But the worldviews and conspiracy theories that QAnon absorbed are still with us.

Loosely tying these movements together is a general distrust of a powerful, often leftist elite. Among them are purveyors of anti-vaccine falsehoods, adherents of Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and believers in just about any other worldview convinced that a shadowy cabal secretly controls things.

For social platforms, dealing with this faceless, shifting and increasingly popular mindset is a far more complicated challenge than they’ve dealt with in the past.

These ideologies “have cemented their place and now are a part of American folklore,” said Max Rizzuto, another researcher at DFRLab. “I don’t think we’ll ever see it disappear.”

Online, such groups now blend into the background. Where Facebook groups once openly referenced QAnon, you’ll now see others like “Since you missed this in the so called MSM,” a page referencing “mainstream media” that boasts more than 4,000 followers. It features links to clips of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and to articles from right-wing publications such as Newsmax and the Daily Wire.

Subjects range from allegedly rampant crime to unfounded claims of widespread election fraud and an “outright war on conservatives.” Such groups aim to draw followers in deeper by directing them to further information on less-regulated sites such as Gab or Parler.

When DFRLab analyzed more than 40 million appearances of QAnon catchphrases and related terms on social media this spring, it found that their presence on mainstream platforms had declined significantly in recent months. After peaks in the late summer of 2020 and briefly on Jan. 6, QAnon catchphrases have largely evaporated from mainstream sites, DFRLab found.

So while your friends and relatives might not be posting wild conspiracies about Hillary Clinton drinking children’s blood, they might instead be repeating debunked claims such as that vaccines can alter your DNA.

There are several reasons for dwindling Q talk — Trump losing the presidential election, for instance, and the lack of new messages from “Q.” But the single biggest factor appears to have been the QAnon crackdown on Facebook and Twitter. Despite well-documented mistakes that revealed spotty enforcement, the banishment largely appears to have worked. It is more difficult to come across blatant QAnon accounts on mainstream social media sites these days, at least from the publicly available data that does not include, for instance, hidden Facebook groups and private messages.

While QAnon groups, pages and core accounts may be gone, many of their supporters remain on the big platforms — only now they’re camouflaging their language and watering down the most extreme tenets of QAnon to make them more palatable.

“There was a very, very explicit effort within the QAnon community to to camouflage their language,” said Angelo Carusone, the president and CEO of Media Matters, a liberal research group that has followed QAnon’s rise. “So they stopped using a lot of the codes, the triggers, the keywords that were eliciting the kinds of enforcement actions against them.”

Other dodges may have also helped. Rather than parroting Q slogans, for instance, for a while earlier this year supporters would type three asterisks next to their name to signal adherence to the conspiracy theory. (That’s a nod to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, a three-star general).

Facebook says it has removed about 3,300 pages, 10,500 groups, 510 events, 18,300 Facebook profiles and 27,300 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against QAnon. “We continue to consult with experts and improve our enforcement in response to how harm evolves, including by recidivist groups,” the company said in a statement.

But the social giant will still cut individuals posting about QAnon slack, citing experts who warn that banning individual Q adherents “may lead to further social isolation and danger,” the company said. Facebook’s policies and response to QAnon continue to evolve. Since last August, the company says it has added dozens of new terms as the movement and its language has evolved.

Twitter, meanwhile, says it has consistently taken action against activity that could lead to offline harm. After the Jan. 6 insurrection, the company began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that it said were “primarily dedicated” to sharing dangerous QAnon material. Twitter said it has suspended 150,000 such accounts to date. Like Facebook, the company says its response is also evolving.

But the crackdown may have come too late. Carusone, for instance, noted that Facebook banned QAnon groups tied to violence six weeks before it banned QAnon more broadly. That effectively gave followers notice to regroup, camouflage and move to different platforms.

“If there were ever a time for a social media company to take a stand on QAnon content, it would have been like months ago, years ago,” DFRLabs’ Rizzuto said.

JORDAN IS ALSO PALESTINE
In Jordan sedition trial, U.S. defendant alleges torture
By KARIN LAUB and OMAR AKOUR

yesterday

FILE - In this June 21, 2021 file photo, Bassem Awadallah, a former royal adviser, leaves a state security court in a vehicle after the first session of his closed-door trial, in Amman, Jordan. Awadallah, a Jordanian American, alleges he was tortured and fears for his life in Jordanian detention, Michael Sullivan, a U.S. lawyer said Sunday, July 11, 2021, on the eve of a verdict in the high-profile sedition trial linked to a rare public rift in the kingdom's ruling family. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, File)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A U.S. citizen and former top aide to Jordan’s King Abdullah II alleged he was tortured in Jordanian detention and fears for his life, his U.S.-based lawyer said Sunday, on the eve of a verdict in the high-profile sedition trial linked to a rare public rift in the kingdom’s ruling family.

Along with the mistreatment allegations, the closed-door trial before Jordan’s state security court “has been completely unfair,” Michael Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor hired by defendant Bassem Awadallah’s U.S.-based family, told The Associated Press.

The allegations of mistreatment, denied by Jordanian officials Sunday, were raised just days before Jordan’s king is to become the first Arab leader to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on July 19. Jordan is a key Western ally in an unstable Middle East.

Awadallah and co-defendant Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a distant cousin of the king, have pleaded not guilty to sedition and incitement charges, which carry lengthy prison terms.

The defendants were accused of conspiring with a senior royal — Prince Hamzah, a half-brother of the king — to foment unrest against the monarch while soliciting foreign help. The indictment portrayed Hamzah as a disgruntled royal who never forgave Abdullah for taking away his title of crown prince in 2004. Hamzah, who was placed under house arrest in April and has been seen in public just once since then, denied he incited against the king, saying he was being punished for calling out high-level corruption.

Despite the serious nature of the charges against Awadallah and bin Zaid, the trial ended after just six sessions. The court denied requests by Jordanian defense lawyers to call witnesses and prosecutors only shared purported transcripts, but not audio, from surveillance of the alleged plotters.

The prosecutor’s office at the state security court denied the trial was unfair. Awadallah was “guaranteed due process” in line with Jordanian law, the prosecutor said in a statement to the AP. “He has not been mistreated in any way, and his allegations of torture of any kind are false.”

The U.S. State Department said that U.S. consular officials visited Awadallah five times and that “we also take seriously any allegations of abuse and lack of minimum fair trial guarantees.”

Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts and former acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that based on the way the trial was conducted, a guilty verdict appeared to be a foregone conclusion. He said any conviction would be appealed.

The U.S. legal team, which has remained in the background until now, will play a more open role in the appeals stage, said Sullivan. He said the aim is to raise awareness about Awadallah’s case in the United States and internationally. This includes “the serious concerns about his safety and security in the short term and the complete unfairness in terms of the process, as well as obviously the torture and violation of a number of international conventions, treaties and laws,” Sullivan said.

The prosecutor’s office said Awadallah didn’t raise torture allegations during the court hearings, his 17 meetings with his Jordanian lawyer or the first four meetings with U.S. consular officials in Jordan. “He only made these claims at his most recent meeting with the consul, as the ruling’s pronouncement (verdict) neared,” the statement said.

Sullivan said Awadallah told his visitor that he had been been beaten, subjected to electrical shock and was threatened with future mistreatment “if he didn’t confess.”

The prosecutor’s office said Awadallah gave a voluntary statement about the case, denying it had been extracted by force.

Awadallah’s family said late last week that he fears for his life. “Bassem is justifiably fearful of being killed in prison after the sentencing, especially because he held several high ranking and sensitive positions in the Jordanian government,” the family said.

Awadallah, who also holds Jordanian and Saudi citizenship, served as head of the royal court and government minister in Jordan. He has extensive business interests in the Gulf and has advised Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on attracting foreign investment.

The Awadallah family urged the Biden administration to call for Awadallah’s release.

Laub reported from Berlin, Germany.

Gangs complicate Haiti effort to recover from assassination
By DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON

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FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2018 file photo, an armed civilian carries a weapon on during a shootout between rival gangs to take control of the Croix-des-Bossales market, on Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a main commercial artery, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018. The fight for control of the market, where vendors pay the controlling gang regular payments, erupted amid days of protests and a strike against alleged government corruption. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs in Haiti have long been financed by powerful politicians and their allies — and many Haitians fear those backers may be losing control of the increasingly powerful armed groups who have driven thousands of people from their homes as they battle over territory, kill civilians and raid warehouses of food.

The escalation in gang violence threatens to complicate — and be aggravated by — political efforts to recover from last week’s brazen slaying of President Jovenel Moïse. Haiti’s government is in disarray; no parliament, no president, a dispute over who is prime minister, a weak police force. But the gangs seem more organized and powerful than ever.

While the violence has been centered in the capital of Port-au-Prince, it has affected life across Haiti, paralyzing the fragile economy, shuttering schools, overwhelming police and disrupting efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The country is transformed into a vast desert where wild animals engulf us,” said the Haitian Conference of the Religious in a recent statement decrying the spike in violent crime. “We are refugees and exiles in our own country.”

Gangs recently have stolen tens of thousands of bags of sugar, rice and flour as well as ransacking and burning homes in the capital. That has driven thousands of people to seek shelter at churches, outdoor fields and a large gymnasium, where the government and international donors struggle to feed them and find long-term housing.

Those included dozens of disabled people who were forced to flee last month when gangs set fire to the encampment where they settled after being injured in the catastrophic 2010 earthquake.

“I was running for my life in the camp on these crutches,” said 44-year-old Obas Woylky, who lost a leg in the quake. “Bullets were flying from different directions. ... All I was able to see was fire in the homes.”

He was among more than 350 people crammed into a school converted into a makeshift shelter where hardly anyone wore face masks against disease.

A cigarette dangled from the mouth of an older woman who washed clothes in a large bowl while a group of children took turns flicking a single blue marble. Nearby, a teenage girl crouched next to an elderly blind man sitting on the concrete floor and lifted a small bag of water to his mouth.

Experts say the violence is the worst they’ve seen since in roughly two decades — since before the creation of a second U.N. peacekeeping mission in 2004.

Programs aimed at reducing gang activity and an influx of aid following the earthquake helped quell some of the problem, but once that money dried up and aid programs shut down, gangs turned to kidnappings and extortion from businesses and neighborhoods they control.

Gangs are in part funded by powerful politicians, a practice recently denounced even by one of its reputed beneficiaries — Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer who heads a gang coalition known as G9 Family and Allies.

He complained that the country is being held “hostage” by people he did not identify: “They reign supreme everywhere, distribute weapons to the populous quarters, playing the division card to establish their domination.”

Cherizier, known as “Barbecue,” has been linked to several massacres and his coalition is believed to be allied with Moïse’s right-wing party. He criticized those he called “bourgeois” and “exploiters,” adding: “We will use our weapons against them in favor of the Haitian people. ... We’re ready for war!”

Cherizier held a news conference on Saturday and called Moïse’s killing “cowardly and villainous,” saying that while many disagreed with him, “no one wanted this tragic outcome that will worsen the crisis and amplify political instability.”

He also issued a veiled warning: “We invite all those who are trying to take advantage of this coup to think carefully, to consider whether they have in their hands the appropriate solution to the country’s problems.”

Cherizier added that he and others will demand justice for Moïse: “We are just now warming up.”

G9 is one of at least 30 gangs that authorities believe control nearly half of Port-au-Prince. Their names range from “5 Seconds” — for how long it allegedly takes them to commit a crime — to “400 Mawozo” — which roughly translated means 400 lame men.

The epicenter of the recent gang violence is Martissant, a community in southern Port-au-Prince whose main road connects the capital to southern Haiti. Drivers’ fear of caught in a crossfire or worse has almost paralyzed commercial connections between the two regions, driving up prices, delaying the transportation of food and fuel and forcing international organizations to cancel programs including the distribution of cash to more than 30,000 people, according to a July 1 report by the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The agency said more than 1 million people need immediate humanitarian assistance and protection.

“Newly displaced people seek refuge in shelters every day,” it said, adding that hygiene there was “appalling.” Authorities worry about a spike in COVID-19 cases in a country that has yet to give a single vaccine.

“Escalating violence on an almost daily basis is expected to last for some time,” the agency said in a report.

The overall economy doesn’t help. The U.N. said the cost of a basic food basket rose by 13% in May compared with February, and that foreign direct investment fell by more than 70% from 2018 to 2020, dropping from $105 million to $30 million. That translates into fewer jobs and increased poverty in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day and 25% less than $1 a day.

Many also worry that the gangs could derail elections scheduled for September and November — a contest crucial to restoring functional legislative and executive branches now largely moribund in the wake of Moïse’s slaying.

But Haiti’s elections minister, Mathias Pierre, said Saturday that those backing the gangs may want to disrupt the elections. Such periods commonly see an upsurge in violence as groups try to use fear to nullify rivals’ advantages.

He said that wouldn’t work this time, noting that countries have held elections even during wars. “We need to organize elections. ...They need to back off.”

Haiti’s Office of the Protection of Citizens, a sort of ombudsman agency, has urged the international community to help Haiti’s National Police, which it said was “unable to respond effectively to the gangsterization of the country.”

Pierre said that lack of resources and weakness of Haiti’s police led the government to ask the United States and United Nations to send troops to help maintain order following Moïse’s killing: “We have a responsibility to avoid chaos.”

Officials say they have been trying to boost the budget and manpower of a police force that now has about 9,000 operational officers for a country of more than 11 million people. Experts say it needs at least 30,000 officers to maintain control.

The government also is trying to figure out where to put people who have fled their homes due to violence, such as 43-year-old Marjorie Benoit, her husband and their three children.

Benoit, who lost an arm in the earthquake, said they fled as gunfire crackled around their neighborhood. She now also has lost her home and all their belongings.

“We have been uprooted,” she said, “and we don’t know where to start.”

VDH: Data shows that vaccinated people rarely die from COVID

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Department of Health says that only 17 people who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus have died of the disease in the state since January.

The Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday that the new data indicates that unvaccinated Virginians make up more than 99% of COVID-related illnesses and fatalities this year.

It’s a fact that public health officials hope will persuade people who are unvaccinated to get their shots.

State Health Commissioner Norman Oliver urged more Virginians to get vaccinated in a statement on Friday.

“I applaud those who have chosen to protect themselves and the community by getting vaccinated,” he said, “and we appreciate the work of all who are helping to vaccinate Virginians.”

Public health officials say vaccines will be the most effective tool at ending the pandemic. It has killed more than 11,400 Virginians and infected at least half a million.

Cases have started ticking up again in several health districts. And public health officials say the delta variant is gaining ground in Virginia, leaving undervaccinated pockets of the state vulnerable.