Coca growers capture 180 soldiers destroying crops in Colombia


Issued on: 28/10/2021 -
Raul ARBOLEDA AFP/File

Bogota (AFP)

Colombian coca growers have taken hostage about 180 soldiers who were eradicating crops of the cocaine-yielding plant near the Venezuelan border, a military official said Thursday.

General Omar Sepulveda told reporters six platoons under his command were "kidnapped" Tuesday in the municipality of Tibu in the northeast by communities resisting the destruction of the illegal plantations they rely on to make a living.

The soldiers were surrounded by farmers armed with sticks and machetes, Sepulveda said.

The troops are being held in a rural school.

In a video shown to AFP by the military, a group of soldiers in camouflage gear and armed with rifles are seen huddled together, with civilians keeping an eye on them.

A spokesman for the community, who identified himself as "Junior" told W Radio the kidnappers were willing to negotiate over the troop's release.

He said the coca growers had detained the soldiers in protest as they felt the government had not fulfilled a promise to help them replace coca leaf plantations with legal crops.

The office of Colombia's human rights ombudsman said on Twitter it was sending a delegation to Tibu to try and secure the soldiers' release.

Tibu is in the Catatumbo region known for being the world's largest area of drug cultivation, with more than 40,000 hectares of coca plantations, according to UN data.

Holdouts from the disbanded FARC rebel group, an active guerrilla group called the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other armed bands fight over drug trafficking revenues along the long and porous border with Venezuela.

President Ivan Duque, in office since 2018, has redoubled efforts to clamp down on the drug trade, with soldiers destroying coca plantations that are the only way of making a living for thousands of peasants and migrant laborers.

Clashes with coca growers are frequent.

With a record number of 1,010 tons in 2020, Colombia remains the world's largest cocaine exporter, and the United States its largest consumer.

Its economy hammered by the coronavirus outbreak, some 42 percent of Colombia's population now live in poverty, and more than 16 percent is unemployed.

© 2021 AFP

Better, but not good enough: National climate pledges

An up-to-date tally of national carbon cutting pledges still puts the world on course toward "catastrophic" warming of 2.7C by 2100, according to the UN 


Issued on: 28/10/2021 -
Paris (AFP)

Six years ago, nearly every country in the world set targets for reducing their carbon emissions -- but the sum total of their pledges fell far short of what was needed to keep the planet from dangerously overheating.

That first raft of "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs) -- many conditioned on financing and technical support -- under the 2015 Paris Agreement would have seen Earth heat up three to four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The treaty called for a cap of "well below" 2C.

And following a landmark 2018 UN climate science report that warned of dire impacts even at 2C, Paris' aspirational 1.5C limit has become the de facto target.

Under the deal's "ratchet" mechanism, signatories review and renew their emission-cutting plans every five years.

Most countries have done so since late 2020, but a new tally still puts the world on course toward "catastrophic" warming of 2.7C by 2100, according to the UN.

China

In 2016, China -- by far the largest emitter, responsible for more than a quarter of all carbon pollution -- promised to reduce the intensity of its emissions by at least 65 percent by 2030.

Under that scenario, it planned to reach peak emissions no later than 2030.

In September last year, President Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement at the UN General Assembly: China plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, meaning any remaining carbon pollution will be captured and stored, or offset.

But the country's new five-year plan does not spell out the steps to reaching this goal, nor has Beijing officially submitted its renewed NDC.

In the meantime, China continues to build new coal-fired power plants, the single largest source of carbon pollution.

United States

The second-largest carbon emitter, the US was one of the driving forces behind the Paris deal, with an initial commitment to cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025, compared with 2005 levels.

Once in office, President Joe Biden wasted no time in rejoining the accord after his predecessor Donald Trump's decision to backtrack on US commitments.

The country's new NDC calls for lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. This is compatible to a 2C world, but still falls well short of the effort needed to stay below 1.5C, according to Climate Action Tracker.

European Union

The EU committed in 2015 to reducing its CO2 emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

Member states updated this goal in December, aiming to reduce emissions by "at least 55 percent" by the end of this decade -- a goal also in line with 2C of global warming.

Britain, which has now left the EU, has a 2050 net-zero target built into law.

It announced in December it would seek to reduce emissions by 68 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, in sync with the 1.5C target.
India

India is the world's third-largest polluter, but has a per-capita carbon footprint far lower than the world's other top emitters.

Like China, the country has unveiled plans to reduce its carbon intensity -- by up to 35 percent this decade compared to 2005 levels.

It has yet to submit a renewed NDC.

Russia

Russia, which did not formally join the Paris deal until in 2019, submitted its first carbon-cutting plan under the Paris deal in 2020.

Using 1990 levels as a benchmark, Moscow said it plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2030, a target deemed "critically insufficient" by Climate Action Tracker.

Most recently, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would aim for carbon neutrality by 2060, but did not provide a roadmap for how the country would get there.
Japan

In 2016, Japan committed to a 26-percent reduction in emissions by 2030. Its renewed NDC, issued in March 2020, had the same figure, sparking sharp criticism from carbon monitoring research groups.

But a more ambitious carbon cutting plan unveiled earlier this month sets a goal of reducing emissions by 46 percent by 2030, compared to 2013 levels.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country would be carbon neutral by 2050

.
Other major emitters

Among other big emitters, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia have all resubmitted NDCs that are no more ambitious -- and in the case of Mexico and Brazil even less ambitious -- than before, according to experts.

Canada, South Africa and Argentina, by contrast, have all boosted their carbon-cutting commitments over the next five years.

Last week, Saudi Arabia pledged to be "net zero", or carbon neutral, by 2060, but announced no plans to curtail oil and gas exports.

Turkey recently announced its ratification of the Paris treaty, and its first NDC may soon follow.

G20 nations -- holding a summit in Rome over the weekend -- represent more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon neutrality

More and more governments are committing to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century.

So far, 49 countries accounting for 57 percent of global emissions -- including all EU member states, Britain and the United States -- have make formal or legal commitments, according to the UN Environment Programme.

Any credible pathway toward global net-zero in 2050 will require slashing carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030, according to the UN.

But 2019 was a record year for emissions, which are rapidly climbing back to pre-pandemic levels, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

© 2021 AFP

Scientists Just Generated the World's Strongest Magnetic Field



Caroline Delbert
Wed, October 27, 2021

A new high-temperature superconducting magnet has reached 20 teslas.

The magnet is as powerful as a previous structure 40 times its size.

The added power (with reduced bulk) could help enable nuclear fusion.

For the first time, scientists used a superconducting electromagnet to create a field strength of 20 teslas—the most powerful magnetic field ever created on Earth. Researchers say this is a positive step toward proving fusion power plants will one day be able to produce more power than they consume.

After three years of collaboration, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), reached the 20-tesla milestone on September 5. (A tesla is the metric unit for magnetic flux per square meter.) That breakthrough is a big deal, but there's something equally important about the superconducting electromagnets: they meet the requirements to be considered "high-temperature."

Superconducting magnets are made from materials known collectively as superconductors, which are typically metals and alloys that are cooled until they conduct electricity with literally zero resistance. But the temperature at which that change occurs matters a great deal.

Traditional ("low-temperature") superconductors must be cooled to nearly absolute zero, which is -273 degrees Celsius. It requires a vast infrastructure network and huge amounts of energy to do so, though. Meanwhile, high-temperature superconductors may operate at temps as high as around -173 Celsius, which is still extraordinarily cold, but requires a lot less energy and bulk.


"[T]he new high-temperature superconductor material, made in the form of a flat, ribbon-like tape, makes it possible to achieve a higher magnetic field in a smaller device, equaling the performance that would be achieved in an apparatus 40 times larger in volume using conventional low-temperature superconducting magnets," MIT notes in a prepared statement.

How does this all fit into the race for nuclear fusion energy? For one thing, magnets are key for nuclear fusion reactors. The typical fusion reactor is roughly donut (or "torus") shaped, with layers of insulation and structure that contain a stream of sun-hot elemental plasma. The plasma would immediately melt through almost any substance on Earth, so it makes sense to hold it in place with the most powerful magnets on Earth.

To date, no fusion reactor has produced net power, meaning more output than the energy required to get the reactor up and running. In fact, no one has really even come close, which is one reason the public views nuclear fusion as a bit of a Music Man sales pitch—always ten years away, and never delivering on its promises.

That's another reason why this magnet is such a big deal. By increasing the magnetic field strength, scientists can use a lot less power in a tokamak reactor. That could bring the idea of plasma ignition, or net productive fusion power, even closer to our reach.

The massive, international plasma tokamak called ITER has declared it will fire its first plasma in 2025. MIT's test reactor with the new magnets, called SPARC, is on its own timeframe with a less-traditional design. But the future of clean, plentiful energy could be closer than we think.

Alert Explosion La Palma volcano: Cones continue to collapse, triggering landslides of lava

Oct 28, 2021



U.S NEWS
Alert Explosion La Palma volcano: Cones continue to collapse, triggering landslides of lava Cones of the Cumbre Vieja volcano continued to collapse on Wednesday, October 27, causing lava overflows and landslides in La Palma, Spain.

Hamburg Welcomes 1st China-Europe Freight Train From Shanghai



Shanghai Express is seen in Hamburg, Germany, Oct. 26, 2021. | Photo: Xinhua

Published 27 October 2021 (22 hours 49 minutes ago)


The "Shanghai Express," carrying 50 containers loaded with apparel, auto parts and solar panels, traveled over 10,000 km before arriving in Germany.

The first fully loaded China-Europe freight train arrived from Shanghai, China's economic hub, in the northern German city of Hamburg on Tuesday, further expanding the rail services between Europe and Asia amid the global logistics disruption.

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The first "Shanghai Express," carrying 50 containers loaded with apparel, auto parts and solar panels, traveled over 10,000 km before arriving in northern Germany late on Monday. Initially, one train per week will operate, but the service is planned to be extended in the future.

The China-Europe freight trains traveling along 73 routes have reached more than 170 cities in 23 European countries, since it was launched in 2011. China-Europe freight train trips have gained robust growth momentum since the start of 2021, with the total number surging 32 percent year-on-year to reach 10,030 by the end of August, two months earlier than last year.

At the DUSS transshipment terminal in Hamburg, the welcome ceremony was attended by Wang Wei, deputy consul general of China in Hamburg, and Michael Westhagemann, Hamburg's senator for economic affairs.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the signing of a partner city agreement between Hamburg and Shanghai and the launch of the "Shanghai Express" has raised the two cities' cooperation to a new level, Wang said.

"Hamburg's role as an important node in the 'Belt and Road' network has been further strengthened and the city will play an even more important role in the joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' in the future," she added.

According to Westhagemann, a direct connection between Hamburg and China, specifically between Hamburg and Shanghai, is especially needed and important considering the current problems in the logistics chain. "Shanghai Express" represents a new milestone in the cooperation between Hamburg and Shanghai, as well as between Germany and China, which makes the launch of the first freight train so significant.

Venezuela and Carter Center Agree

on Election Observation

Photograph of the facilities of the National Electoral Council (CNE), on

 October 25, 2021, in Caracas (Venezuela) | Photo: EFE / Miguel Gutiérrez

Published 27 October 2021

The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela and the Carter Center of the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to guarantee the impartiality and objectivity of the observation mission to be deployed by the Carter Center in the regional and municipal elections of November 21.

The Carter Center Electoral Expert Mission and its members will maintain strict conduct of impartiality, objectivity, independence and non-interference in the electoral process and respect for national sovereignty and self-determination during the performance of its mandate, which includes, among others, not interfering in the conduct of the electoral process," said the memorandum published by the CNE.

RELATED:
Venezuela Advances In Preparations For November Elections

The Carter Center is a non-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and his wife Rosalynn,

According to the document, members of the Carter Center Electoral Mission may be deployed in Caracas prior to the elections to follow the preparations for the elections, as well as the campaign and the electoral event, until the announcement of the results.

Likewise, the CNE committed to guaranteeing the electoral mission freedom of access to its facilities, to the subordinate electoral bodies and to all information on the electoral process.

The Carter Center mission will deliver a report to the NEC in the days following the elections.

The memorandum was signed by the president of the CNE, Pedro Calzadilla, and the executive director of The Carter Center, Paige Alexander.

Earlier this month, three members of the Carter Center were in this South American country evaluating their participation as observers in the November 21 elections, following the invitation extended by the Venezuelan electoral body.

In August 2015, the Carter Center reported the closure of its offices and the cessation of its operations in Venezuela, which it had maintained since 2002.

The Carter Center had not participated as an international observer in Venezuelan elections since 2006.

Ecuador president calls for dialogue with indigenous on second day of protests


FILE PHOTO: Ecuadoreans protest gasoline prices, in Guayaquil

Alexandra Valencia
Wed, October 27, 2021, 

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso on Wednesday called for dialogue following a second day of demonstrations by indigenous and civil society groups against gasoline price rises, and said his government would keep security forces on highways to maintain order.

Thousands of demonstrators marched on Tuesday in rejection of Lasso's increase of the price of gasoline extra, a cheaper gasoline that is Ecuador's most-used fuel, to a fixed $2.55 a gallon, and diesel to $1.90 a gallon.

Lasso, a conservative ex-banker who took office in May, was under pressure from unions and others to freeze incremental gasoline price increases begun by his predecessor last year.

Marchers argue the increased cost falls unfairly on regular citizens already struggling economically because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I call once more for dialogue, for consensus, for thinking of the good of the country and not of personal, party or union interests," Lasso said during a military ceremony. "In these moments of economic recovery it's time to be united."

Various road blockades begun ahead of Tuesday's protests were continuing on Wednesday, including a barricade of earth and trees on one of capital Quito's access roads.

Other roads in the country's center and south were also closed, emergency services ECU 911 said, and transportation in the Amazon region was reportedly delayed by closures.

The Ecuador Confederation of Indigenous Nations (CONAIE) said on Twitter that protests would take place around the country and posted video of one demonstration in Tungurahua province.

Police were being deployed to clear some blockades, footage on local media showed.

"If tomorrow the challenges remain we'll maintain the control by police in the cities, plazas and countryside of Ecuador," Lasso said.

At least eight police officers were injured during Tuesday's demonstrations and 37 people were arrested for blocking roads, the government said. CONAIE said demonstrators had also been hurt but did not give a figure.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Ecuadorians Perform National Strike For Second Day In A Row



Citizens march in a road, Ecuador, Oct. 27, 2021 | Photo: Twitter/ @gabybarzallo

Published 27 October 2021
by Stephen Sefton, Tortilla con Sal
teleSUR/MS

Protests continue to increase across this Andean country despite the fact that President Lasso decreed a "State of Emergency."

On Wednesday, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) continued to hold protests against the increase in fuel prices decreed by President Guillermo Lasso.

Ecuadorans Reject President Lasso's Increase In Fuel Prices

The Indigenous organization presented seven demands to end the nationwide protests. Along with the reduction of fuel prices, it demands the release of the citizens detained during the protests. CONAIE also denounced the presence of police and military personnel in Indigenous territories to intimidate the people.

Yesterday, protesters blocked the country's main roads with trees and debris. A massive group marched towards the Presidential palace where riot police confronted them. In the capital city, public forces fired tear gas at demonstrators at the Santo Domingo square. At least 27 protesters were detained and many more resulted injured.

On Wednesday, roads in at least 10 cities remain blocked with burning tires or metal debris. The Lasso administration has not responded yet to the people’s demands but has stated that it has not ruled out a new negotiation process.




After similar protests in September, President Lasso and CONAIE leaders met and negotiated a possible solution to the fuel price issue. However, their dialogue ceased on Oct. 4.

In Oct. 2019, then-President Lenin Moreno implemented austerity measures, eliminated fuel subsidies, and increased the price of gasoline. In response to these policies, social organizations carried out a 10-day nationwide protest that revealed the discontent of Ecuadorians. Despite the existence of this precedent, Lasso decided to continue with the monthly increase in fuel prices.

On Monday, Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency allegedly to stop crime and violence attributed to drug traffickers. Workers, farmers, and students have condemned his move as an attempt to quell popular demonstrations.

Turkmenistan officials due in Afghanistan as Taliban back TAPI gas pipeline


Workers stand near a gas pipe during the launching ceremony of construction work on the Afghan section of a natural gas pipeline that will link Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, near Serhetabat

Wed, October 27, 2021, 

KABUL (Reuters) - Officials from Turkmenistan will visit Kabul this week to discuss continuing work on the TAPI pipeline linking the energy-rich Central Asian country through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, the Taliban government said on Wednesday.

The pipeline is expected to carry 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas each year along a route stretching 1,800 km (1,125 miles) from Galkynysh, the world's second-biggest gas field, to the Indian city of Fazilka near the Pakistan border.

"We have been working hard for some time and we are ready to take pride in starting work on the TAPI project," Mohammad Issa Akhund, the acting minister of mines and petroleum in the new Taliban government, said in a statement.


The Afghan stretch of the pipeline will run from the northwestern border with Turkmenistan, south through the western city of Herat to Kandahar near the border with Pakistan.

Akhund met the ambassador of Turkmenistan ahead of a two-day visit by a delegation from the country that will start from Saturday, the statement said.

The project was launched in Afghanistan in 2018, when the Taliban was fighting the Western-backed government in Kabul, but it pledged its cooperation for a project it hailed as a key future element of the economic infrastructure.

Afghanistan, which suffers chronic energy shortages, is expected to take 5% of the gas itself, with the rest divided equally between Pakistan and India. In addition, Kabul should earn hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

WW3.0

India tests nuclear-capable missile amid tensions with China


FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, file photo, the long range ballistic Agni-V missile is displayed during Republic Day parade, in New Delhi, India. India has successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a strike range of 5,000 kilometers (3,125 miles) from an island off India's east coast on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, amid rising border tensions with China. Beijing's powerful missile arsenal has driven New Delhi to improve its weapons systems in recent years, with the Agni-5 believed to be able to strike nearly all of China. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)More


Wed, October 27, 2021

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has test-fired a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,125 miles) from an island off its east coast amid rising border tensions with China.

The successful launch on Wednesday was in line with "India’s policy to have credible minimum deterrence that underpins the commitment to no first use,” said a government statement.

The Agni-5 missile splashed down in the Bay of Bengal with "a very high degree of accuracy,” said the statement issued on Wednesday night.

Beijing’s powerful missile arsenal has driven New Delhi to improve its weapons systems in recent years, with the Agni-5 believed to be able to strike nearly all of China.

India is already able to strike anywhere inside neighboring Pakistan, its archrival against whom it has fought three wars since gaining independence from British colonialists in 1947.

India has been developing its medium- and long-range nuclear and missile systems since the 1990s amid increasing strategic competition with China in a major boost to the country’s defense capabilities.

Tension between them flared last year over a long-disputed section of their border in the mountainous Ladakh area. India is also increasingly suspicious of Beijing’s efforts to heighten its influence in the Indian Ocean.

Talks between Indian and Chinese army commanders to disengage troops from key areas along their border ended in a stalemate earlier this month, failing to ease a 17-month standoff that has sometimes led to deadly clashes. India and China fought a bloody war in 1962.

INDIA REPROCESSED CANDU URANIUM ILLEGALLY TO BUILD ITS FIRST NUKE

LIKE ISRAEL THEY ARE NOT MEMBERS OF THE NUKE  NON AGRESSION PACT 

BUT PAKISTAN AND IRAN ARE

Rachel Maddow Celebrates Neo-Nazis Who've Been Crippled By Legal Fees: 'Good For Them'


GREAT LOOK RACHEL

H/T Raw Story.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Josephine Harvey
Tue, October 26, 2021

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday offered viewers a “little warm fuzziness” as she celebrated the legal and financial undoing of white supremacist leaders involved with the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A federal lawsuit against rally organizers, which went to trial this month, has rattled white nationalist groups and leaders and financially crippled one of the defendants, prominent neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, according to a USA Today report last week.

Spencer reportedly said the legal process had been “very stressful and very costly.” He has resorted to representing himself in court.

“You say he’s representing himself? “Serving as his own lawyer? You don’t say?” Maddow said after reading from the report. “Whatever else has happened in your life today, I bequeath you this little warm fuzziness to hold in your heart: The Nazis are representing themselves in court, acting as their own lawyers. That always works out great. Good for them. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.”

Another defendant, Christopher Cantwell, is also representing himself after his lawyers quit. Three other defendants ― Jason Kessler, Nathan Damigo and the group Identity Evropa ― are represented by lawyer James Kolenich, who said he took on the case to “oppose Jewish influence in society.”

“I’m sure he’s going to be a great lawyer,” Maddow said. “Sounds like he’s got mad skills. Emphasis on mad.”

At least two other defendants are believed to be in hiding.

Jury selection for the trial began Monday at the Charlottesville federal courthouse. Two dozen white supremacists and organizations are named in the civil suit, funded by the nonprofit group Integrity First for America, over the 2017 rally, which saw an alliance of neo-Nazis and extremists descend on the city for an event that left one woman dead and many more injured.

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A MAN WHO DEFENDS HIMSELF HAS FOOL FOR A LAWYER

Richard Spencer, Christopher ‘Crying Nazi’ Cantwell Struggle To Defend Themselves As ‘Unite the Right’ Charlottesville Trial Opens

Tessa Stuart
Tue, October 26, 2021


richard-spencer-cantwell-charlottesville-case -

 Credit: Chris O'Meara/AP; Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post/Getty Images

One of the more controversial things Donald Trump ever said was that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the violent protests that erupted during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. (Nineteen were injured and one was killed that day when a white nationalist named James Fields plowed his Dodge Charger into a crowd of counter protesters.) Trump’s remark was roundly condemned, his approval rating plummeted, members of his cabinet considered resigning, and Joe Biden cited it as the moment he decided to challenge Trump in 2020, calling the sentiment a “threat to this nation… unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.”

Yet, four years later, as a civil trial begins in Charlottesville, jury selection has revolved around finding 12 people who, essentially, agree with Trump’s assessment. Jurors are have been grilled over whether they harbor any bias against either the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville or the counter protestors — and, if they do, questioned about whether that they can suspend their preconceived notions about who was responsible for the violence and whether or not it was premeditated. The trial is expected to last four weeks.

“I am biased against the defense,” one prospective juror told the court Tuesday, referring to the 14 men and 10 far-right organizations accused of sparking the violence. “I believe they are evil, I believe their organizations are evil, and I would find it difficult to set that aside,” he said. The juror was dismissed. The exchange, though, illustrates just how difficult it will be for the lawyers for the victims to impanel and convince a jury that white nationalists conspired to commit the racially-motivated violence that took place in Charlottesville four years ago. Nearly everyone who has admitted to harboring any negative feelings about white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville have been challenged by the defendants lawyers or dismissed for cause.

Lawyers for both sides have attempted to suss out potential bias with their own litmus tests. Prospective jurors have been questioned about their views on Black Lives Matter (“It’s just irritating,” one prospective juror said about BLM signs she encounters from time to time. “It should be ‘all lives matter.’”), whether or not Confederate monuments should come down (“I think it’s wrong to change the history,” another prospective juror said), and antifa (one called antifascists a “terrorist organization”; another said antifa was “most likely” responsible for the violence that took place in Charlottesville).

Lawyers for the victims, who were brought together by the nonprofit Integrity First for America, are planning to use a 1871 law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act in an effort to prove the defendants conspired to cause racially-motivated violence in Charlottesville. But if the first two days of jury selection are any indication, attorneys have their work cut out for them. Once they are able to find a full slate of jurors from the Charlottesville area who can credibly claim they have no strong view about the events that rocked the city four years ago, they’ll have to navigate a trial in which two of the white nationalists accused of violence — Christopher Cantwell and Richard Spencer — are representing themselves in court.

Cantwell, who earned the nickname “Crying Nazi” for an emotional video he recorded responding to the fallout after the rally, was nearly removed from the proceedings before they began. The New Hampshire man, who has been serving a 41-month sentence in an Illinois federal prison for threatening and extorting the leader of an online group that idolizes the Charleston shooter Dylann Roof, has complained in hand-written notes submitted to the court about the “comically limited resources at my disposal” to prepare for jury selection and trial. (Cantwell was transferred to the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange, Virginia for the duration of the proceedings.) Lawyers for the victims, wary Cantwell would attempt to leverage his difficulties as part of an appeal, asked for Cantwell to be severed from the case, but Judge Norman Moon denied the motion Monday.

Both Cantwell and Spencer — neither of whom are lawyers — have struggled in the first two days of jury selection. At one point, Cantwell complained that he didn’t have his witness list; at another, he and Spencer complained about being forced to share a binder of juror questionnaires.

Cantwell and Spencer, though, seemed aligned in their view of who would constitute an unsympathetic juror. Both raised objections to a juror who said he believed white people can’t be the victim of racism. Cantwell called that an “extreme view… classic critical race theory talk,” while Spencer raised concerns about the same juror’s “endorsement of antifa.” The judge refused to ask one prospective juror — an older black man — a question that Cantwell posed because the judge deemed it “insulting.” (Cantwell, it seemed from later back and forth with the judge, wanted to ask a question about the man’s cognitive ability.) Spencer objected to a different prospective juror, a black woman, even as he acknowledged, “I can’t really articulate a case against this person.”

Lawyer James Kolenich, who is representing Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler as well as the SPLC-designated white nationalist organization Identity Evropa and its founder, Nathan Damigo, expressed frustration with Cantwell and Spencer in court Tuesday, saying “I have no idea what these two think they’re doing,” and complaining it was “difficult” to work beside them. Kolenich, who was Cantwell’s lawyer before he reportedly failed to pay the attorney for his work, has said in the past he took on this case “to oppose Jewish influence in society.” (On Tuesday, Kolenich was also advocating for two other defendants — the National Socialist Movement and its former leader Jeff Schoep. Edward ReBrook, the lawyer of record for Schoep and NSM, was admitted to the emergency room this morning.)

Opening arguments in the case are set to begin Thursday.

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