LIKE FATHER LIKE SON
Trudeau calls for clearing cyberspace of hate, disinformation at peace forum

OTTAWA — Hate speech, disinformation and online extremism can't be allowed to prevent people from enjoying the freedom that cyberspace offers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday at an international discussion on the internet.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"There is no doubt: the digital space has incredible power for good. But from disinformation on vaccines to online extremism, we’ve also seen the threat it can pose to our democratic values, systems and our citizens," Trudeau said via video link from Ottawa to the Paris Peace Forum.

"We can't allow the benefits of the digital space to come at the expense of people's rights or safety."

The forum bills itself as an effort to revitalize global institutions, and is focusing this year on the vast inequalities exposed by the pandemic.

In-person attendees included the host, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, and Canada's industry minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who is also attending a conference on artificial intelligence in the French capital.

Harris said the U.S. is committed to working with its allies to eliminate online terrorist content.

"For the United States, our approach to the digital domain is rooted in our democratic principles," she said. "We will continue to advocate for an open, secure and interoperable internet and work to ensure that technology helps, not harms, the people of our world."

Trudeau was addressing a panel on the challenges of the digital domain after co-founding a new international program last year with called the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence.

He noted that Canada served as the chair of the partnership last year and "focused on bringing together the international community to ensure AI respects rights and freedoms and doesn't harm democratic societies."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the gathering from Washington where she has been holding meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden.

She said the EU and U.S. have deepened their co-operation on how to make AI more "trustworthy" for its users.

"AI is without any doubt already changing our lives for the better. It can help for example, detect cyberattack... it can support doctors in more precise cancer diagnosis," said von der Leyen.

"Yet, for people to trust AI, we must also manage the risks."

Before the speeches, Macron welcomed a roomful of masked and physically spaced international politicians and business leaders to a high-ceilinged Parisian conference centre. That included Champagne, one of two Canadian federal ministers travelling in Europe this week, with whom the French president exchanged an extended handshake.

Earlier this week, Champagne told The Canadian Press he is planning to table a new digital charter after the return of parliament to address the issues surrounding AI and the internet-based economy.

Champagne said earlier this week the technology needs to be mindful of protecting privacy and that the government needs to create an overarching framework that reflects Canadian values.

Von der Leyen told the gathering that the EU was joining France in its pursuit of building trust and security in cyberspace.

"Throughout the pandemic, indeed, the internet has been a lifeline for millions of companies, and the only connection to our loved ones for so many of us," she said.

"Yet cyberspace has also become a more dangerous place, with rising threats against our critical infrastructure, our democratic processes, and even our personal health and safety, including our children's."

Trudeau's live video address to the conference also highlighted another challenge that those working through internet have had to rise above during the pandemic — a failing connection that cuts you off from the people you are trying to connect with.

About three minutes into his presentation from Ottawa, Trudeau's screen froze, and then cut out.

The live, onstage moderator back in Paris immediately pivoted back to the attendees.

"He seems to have disappeared. Anyway, thank you very much," he said, calling on the French crowd to give the Canadian prime minister a round of applause — which they did.

"It just goes to show that he really is live, and we're not so showing you pre-recorded videos."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2021.

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press

Hatred offences of the Criminal Code

Origin of the provisions

In the early 1960s, concerns were raised by various public groups (such as the Canadian Jewish Congress), by some media outlets, and by some politicians (such as John Diefenbaker, then Leader of the Opposition) about the rise of hate publications in Canada.^{[4]: pp.245–247} The federal government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson responded by appointing a committee in January 1965 to study the issue and make recommendations about legislation: the Special Committee on Hate Propaganda in Canada, commonly referred to as the "Cohen Committee" after its chair, Maxwell Cohen.

The Minister of Justice, Guy Favreau appointed the seven members of the Committee: Maxwell Cohen, Dean of Law at McGill University;^[5] Dr. James A. Corry, Principal of Queen's University; Father Gérard Dion, professor of industrial relations at Université Laval;^[6] Saul Hayes, QC, executive vice-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress; Mark MacGuigan, then a professor of law at the University of Toronto; Shane MacKay, executive editor of the Winnipeg Free Press;^[7] and Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, then a professor of law at the Université de Montréal.^[4]: 248 In Keegstra, Chief Justice Dickson described this group as "a particularly strong committee".^{[1]: pp.724–725}

In 1966, the Committee made its report. It recommended that Parliament enact legislation to combat hate speech and genocide. The Pearson government promptly introduced the legislation, proposing three new offences: advocating genocide; publicly inciting hatred in a way likely to lead to a breach of the peace; and wilfully promoting hatred. The bill then took four years to wend its way through Parliament. The bill finally passed in 1970, under the government of Pierre Trudeau, by that time Prime Minister of Canada.^{[4]: pp.259–264 [8]}

Hate speech laws in Canada - Wikipedia

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rising, despite COP26 pledges

Data from the national space research agency shows deforestation increased by 5 percent from October 2020.

The government's space agency said alerts in October corresponded to 877 square kilometres - the highest indicator for the month in five years [Bruno Kelly/Reuters]

Published On 12 Nov 2021

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose in the month of October compared with last year, according to satellite images, in contradiction of pledges by the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro that it would do more to curb illegal deforestation in the area.

The preliminary data from national space research agency INPE showed on Friday about 877 square kilometres (339 square miles) of forest were cleared last month, a 5 percent increase from October 2020. It was the worst October deforestation since the current monitoring system began in 2015.

KEEP READING
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Landmark pact to protect Amazon rainforest shows little progress

The new data comes at a moment when Brazil’s government has been trying to improve its reputation on environmental issues. At the UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, (COP26), Environment Minister Joaquim Leite announced on Wednesday a target of zero illegal logging by 2028 — pushing up the goal of 2030 that Bolsonaro had presented at the White House-led climate summit in April.

“We are committed to stop illegal deforestation in the Amazon,” Leite said on Wednesday

.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has raised concerns among environmentalists by calling for development within the Amazon region and dismissing global complaints about its destruction as a plot to hold back the nation’s agribusiness. 

[File: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters]

But scientists, diplomats and activists say those promises mean little given how deforestation has soared under Bolsonaro to levels last seen in 2008, as the far-right populist calls for more mining and farming in the Amazon.

“Government announcements are not changing the reality that Brazil is continuing to lose forests,” said Ane Alencar, science director at Amazon Environmental Research Institute, at COP26 in Glasgow.

“The world knows where Brazil stands and this attempt to display a different Brazil is unconvincing, because satellite data clearly shows the reality.”

Bolsonaro has raised concerns among environmentalists by calling for development within the Amazon region and dismissing global complaints about its destruction as a plot to hold back the nation’s agribusiness. His administration has also defanged environmental authorities and backed legislative measures to loosen land protections, emboldening land grabbers.

Bolsonaro has offered a more conciliatory tone on environmental issues since US President Joe Biden took office, promising at a White House Earth Day summit and again at the UN General Assembly to bring down illegal deforestation.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon has had a devastating effect on Indigenous people, including the Mura tribe 

[File: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]

However, the Brazilian president has overseen staffing cuts at environmental agencies, thrown up roadblocks to environmental law enforcement and deployed an ineffective army intervention to disrupt anti-logging operations in the Amazon.

Before Bolsonaro took office in 2019, the Brazilian Amazon had not recorded a single year with more than 10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles) of deforestation in more than a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average per year was 6,500 square kilometers. It averaged 10,500 square kilometres (4,054 square miles) in the first two full years of Bolsonaro’s term.

“The data from Deter is a reminder that the same Brazil that circulates in the corridors and halls of COP26, in Glasgow, is the same where land grabbers, illegal loggers and miners have a government license to destroy the forest,” the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental groups, said in a statement.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

AL JAZEERA 

Beyond the media agitation, finger pointing and fake incomprehension

Erudite and committed writings of Tariq Ali on Afghanistan, published at every stage of the calamity, are a illuminating read, suggests ANDREW MURRAY

EARLY WARNING: Stop the War coalition protest in Trafalgar Square in London in 2012


The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan – A Chronicle Foretold
by Tariq Ali
Verso £10.99

THE return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, amid a chaotic US military evacuation, constitutes the greatest humiliation imperialism has suffered in the 21st century.

One need be no friend of the social agenda of the Taliban — and few are — to recognise the enormity of its achievement and the reverse for the Nato powers, headed by the US.

Even in the bloody debacle of Iraq, the aggressors in the 2003 war have been able to organise something like a fighting retreat and retain the capacity for direct interference.

In Afghanistan, the war begun in 2001 has ended in categorical defeat.

The US and British politicians who hubristically started the occupation of the country and maintained it over 20 debilitating and disastrous years cannot now complain that “nobody warned us.”

They were so warned, from the first days of the Stop the War Coalition in this country. The founders of the movement, including both the author of the book under review and the present reviewer, said loud and clear that the course embarked on in the wake of September 11 by Washington and London would lead to no happy ending.

This book spells out chapter and verse, bringing together the erudite and committed writings of the anti-imperialist campaigner and author Tariq Ali on Afghanistan published at every stage of the calamity.

Compare his judgement on events with those promulgated in the chancelleries of the imperial occupiers — of The Guardian newspaper for example — and it is clear who assessed events the better.

This collection is indispensable for forming an understanding of what has happened and why.

Informed both by a deep understanding of the politics of Afghanistan and its entwined neighbour Pakistan and of the general principles of national liberation, Ali consistently called it right. This from 2007: “The Taliban is growing and creating new alliances not because its sectarian religious practices have become popular but because it is the only available umbrella for national liberation. As the British and Russians discovered to their cost in the preceding two centuries, Afghans never liked being occupied.”

In 2008 he pointed out that the consequences of the US-Nato occupation “creates a thirst for dignity that can only be assuaged by genuine independence.” How much blood might have been spared and treasure saved for better purposes had these simple truths been heeded much earlier. As long ago as 2010 Ali was warning that “the collapse might reach Saigon proportions.” So it proved.

Taken together — and there is inevitably an element of repetition in a volume aggregating separate articles as this does — the book allows one to follow step by dismal step the unravelling of the latest attempt to impose foreign-directed governance on Afghanistan. It shines a particular light on the contradictory, not to say duplicitous, role of Pakistan throughout.

Its leaders and above all its generals both assisted the US operation and simultaneously sheltered and supported the Taliban, a strategic balancing act maintained for a generation.

Present Pakistani premier Imran Khan was one of those who rejoiced in the Taliban victory this summer. Ali’s deep knowledge of Pakistani politics and society is invaluable here.

There is one issue addressed which Morning Star readers might find controversial. As the title of the book indicates, Ali’s sweep encompasses more than just the 20-year Nato war, and goes back to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, which began in December 1979. The first piece in this collection, dated January 1980, is headed Soviet Troops out of Afghanistan!

In it, Ali warns that the Red Army was propping up a regime which had forfeited its initial public support through factionalism and unreralistic policies. “Genuine revolutions can only succeed with mass support. Any attempt to substitute Russian soldiers for the people of Afghanistan can end only in disaster. Either the Russians will have to withdraw in any event and accept a government of a different complexion, or they will get bogged down in a long war,” he wrote. As it turned out, over the next decade the Soviets got both.

The Communist Party in this country took the same view as Ali, albeit for rather more legalistic reasons, but many in the party, including the reviewer, and some on the left outside it did not.

Our view was not informed by any particular knowledge of Afghan affairs, but by the supervening requirement, as it seemed to us, to support the Soviet government as a principle of international class struggle, the more so when it was under attack by the imperialists.

We were also concerned to support a regime in Kabul that seemed to have progressive achievements, although we understood little about it. I was, I recall, working in the Star’s newsroom as part of a skeleton Sunday shift in April 1978 when news came through of the revolution which brought the People’s Democratic Party to power in Afghanistan.

The paper’s then-foreign editor, Sam Russell, having consulted with the CPGB’s international savant Jack Woddis, declared confidently that this event could not be considered a socialist revolution “because there is no Communist Party in Afghanistan.”

A couple of hours later, time clearly spent by Woddis immersed in his archives, the line changed — Russell announced that investigation had established that there were in fact two communist organisations in Kabul, so the revolution could be correspondingly upgraded.

Alas, the two communist factions spent much of the next few years at each other’s throats, mediating their differences through persecution, exile and murder.

The regime’s second leader, Hafizullah Amin, who had had the first bumped off, may in fact have actually been some sort of CIA asset. He in turn was killed by the Soviets on their arrival.

The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) regime did have many progressive achievements in terms of social modernisation, as Ali acknowledges. There was no talk from the imperialists, who hypocritically funded and armed the fundamentalist mujahidin fighting the regime, of protecting the rights of Afghan women then.

However, the PDPA’s lack of political judgement in tackling a conservative rural society, the intrigues of its enemies and its reliance on foreign military support sealed its fate, even if it lasted rather longer on its own two feet, after Soviet withdrawal, than the debased Ghani regime managed after the US bailed on him.

Looking back, I do not regret supporting the Soviet endeavour in Afghanistan, for the same reasons that I had at the time. However, on the substance of the matter — the wisdom of the intervention and its baleful consequences for both Afghanistan and the USSR itself — it should be acknowledged that, here too, Tariq Ali was right and has been vindicated.

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The solutions to the climate emergency won't come from the colonisers, Indigenous groups say


Minga Indigena delegates in Glasgow Photo: 350.org

INDIGENOUS groups that have travelled to Glasgow for the crucial Cop26 summit have said they will not look to their colonisers for answers to the climate emergency, hitting out at the world leaders’ proposed solutions.

Representatives from the Minga Indigena, a collective of indigenous peoples from the Americas, as well as others who have travelled from across the world for the talks, marched during the summit today.

They presented a list of demands, having been largely excluded from talks in the past fortnight.

Despite their history of responsible environmental practices, most indigenous groups have not been represented during Cop26 at the summit, instead attending fringes.

Hundreds of elders and other representatives from tribes and indigenous families were also left without official accommodation, turning to local Glaswegians for spare rooms or makeshift accommodation with the support of activists.

Speaking at the SEC conference today, representatives from the Minga Indigena said colonialism was at the root of the climate crisis.

“Climate change is not a blameless phenomenon. Colonialism is what caused climate change,” the group said in a statement.

“I don’t believe in the power of colonial systems to transform. I don’t believe in the power of colonialism that has killed us and stolen our lands.

“We cannot be comfortable at Cop26. We have to continue our fight. We come from the people and we have to protect our peoples and our sisters.

“We will outlive this. We will outlive these empires.”

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MORNINGSTAR 

Editorial:

Cop26 was a failure. But the people's alternative
can still be a success



Climate activists protesting during the official final day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow

HAS COP26, which has wound up in Glasgow after two weeks of political showboating and grassroots protest, been a failure?

In one sense the answer is yes. Lobbying by fossil fuel interests has seriously weakened proposals to phase out subsidies for coal, oil and gas.

The richest nations tried to present themselves as climate saviours while shunting the blame onto developing countries: witness the way US President Joe Biden accused China of “a lack of urgency” on global warming when US emissions per head are more than twice China’s and will still be higher than China’s and India’s put together even if Washington meets all its 2030 reduction targets — which it won’t, if the trouble Biden’s green infrastructure legislation has run into in the US Senate is any guide.

There have been impressive-sounding pledges on financial assistance to the developing world; but these may share the fate of the 2009 promise to offer $100 billion (£75bn) a year to help global South countries adapt to the threat of climate change.

The sum has not been met. It is dwarfed by the more than $3 trillion in subsidies G20 countries have provided for fossil fuel industries since 2015, or for that matter the $750bn spent by the United States on its military over the last year.

If the agreement sounds like too little, too late, the reality is worse, because the politicians signing up cannot be trusted.

Brazil has signed up to ending deforestation by 2030: yet under President Jair Bolsonaro this is accelerating, not slowing. This August we learned an area seven times the size of greater London had been felled in the last year alone, the worst assault on the Amazon in a decade.

Indonesia combines the same promise with plans to double palm oil production in the next decade: presumably if it is serious about retiring the chainsaws in 2030 that’s because it doesn’t expect there to be any forest left.

Indigenous representatives placing the blame on colonialism have a point, and the destruction goes alongside trampling on indigenous rights from Brazil to India, where the Narendra Modi government perversely claims conservation as a reason to expel adivasis from their ancestral lands — depicting them, without evidence, as a threat to endangered wildlife — before awarding logging and mining contracts in the “protected” areas.

The “too little, too late” narrative is misleading because it implies governments are acting to address climate change but need to get their skates on. In fact the world’s wealthiest countries show no sign of abandoning business as usual.

The reason is obvious: an economic system that rewards short-term profit over long-term sustainability cannot reconcile itself to the logic of “keep it in the ground.”

And as capitalism has evolved it has become shorter and shorter-term in outlook: the length of time investors hang onto shares has been shrinking for decades, from around eight years in 1960 to just five months by 2020, incentivising reckless asset-stripping and plunder over long-term resource management.

This is not a system which is capable of addressing climate change, so the summit was a failure. Real action requires taking public control of the economy and removing “investors’” profits from the equation.

Yet the other summit — the mass demonstrations, the trade union and NGO meetings, the climate activists who joined striking workers on picket lines — can still be a success.

Unity between the labour movement and demonstrators for ecological and social justice is a precondition for transformative change. Only organised labour can challenge the power of capital: and a broad-based anti-monopolies alliance of unions with community and campaigning organisations could carry real political weight.

Since the defeat of Corbynism in 2019 the Establishment has done its best to silence or belittle anyone who believes that another world is possible. But the riotous “alternative” Cop26 shows that millions still do.

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UK
Ratcliffe slams government inaction over wife's detention in Iran as he enters 20th day on hunger strike


Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, on the 19th day of his hunger strike outside The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, following his wife losing her latest appeal in Iran

THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe marked day 20 of his hunger strike today after a meeting with a Foreign Office minister left him feeling “deflated.”

Richard Ratcliffe described being “stuck in the same status quo” after the discussion about his wife’s continued detention in Iran with James Cleverly on Thursday.

He accused the British government of not doing enough to resolve the situation.

Mr Ratcliffe, who began his hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London on October 24, said that he came away from the meeting with “no hope.”

His update from Mr Cleverly, lasting a little over 30 minutes, took place after talks between British government officials and Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani.

According to her family, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told by Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of Britain’s failure to pay an outstanding £400 million debt to Iran.

Mr Ratcliffe said that the government “clammed up” and would not talk about the debt during his discussion with them.

But Britain reportedly told Iran that it could not pay the debt owing to restrictions brought about by sanctions, according to Tehran’s deputy foreign minister.

Mr Bagheri Kani, according to the Guardian, said that the two sides had agreed to a payment of less than £500 million taking interest into account, adding: “Now what the UK government are bringing up is the limitations on banking interactions, saying it is a difficulty, and finally they cannot do it.”

He said that the issue of repaying the debt was separate from the detention of British-Iranian nationals but said: “If these incidents were resolved, it would naturally have to influence the relationship between the two countries.”

A spokesman for the FCDO said that Mr Cleverly had then met Mr Ratcliffe “to reaffirm our commitment to reuniting his wife with her family in the UK.”

But Mr Ratcliffe said that he felt “a little bit more deflated,” saying: “I don’t feel they’ve given a clear enough message to Iran that hostage-taking is wrong.

“I don’t think there are any consequences to Iran at present for its continuing taking hostages of British citizens and using them.”

Amnesty International UK chief executive Sacha Deshmukh described the meeting’s outcome as “bitterly disappointing ” and called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “personally intervene” in the case of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other detainees.

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Bezos Fund CEO joins calls for reboot of development banks for climate


* Andrew Steer calls for governments to offer more guarantees

* Says development banks need to undergo "disruptive change"

* System currently "not big enough" to play its needed role


Simon Jessop and Noemie Olive
Thu, November 11, 2021

GLASGOW, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The head of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos' $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund has joined calls for governments to take on more of the risk of financing climate action, and help the world's development banks become more flexible in their approach.

Policymakers at the U.N. climate conference in Scotland are pushing private sector investors to use their trillions of dollars in capital to help drive the transition to low-carbon economies in emerging markets.

In developing economies, those projects often carry more risk than in more developed markets, and require the assistance of supranational development banks - whose lending processes may not have been updated for the challenges of climate change.

"We need, occasionally, to think about systemic change, and I believe the time is now," Earth Fund CEO Andrew Steer, a former World Bank executive, said on the sidelines of the COP26 talks.

"There tends to be a certain inertia ... a certain path dependency and we need to ... have a little more disruptive change."

He said one "very good" option could be to use government guarantees, which could be provided as quasi capital to the banks, allowing them to leverage up their investable funds.

Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has also previously urged governments to rethink the role of the multilateral lenders.

Fink said he wanted the banks to be allowed to take on more risk, which would give private sector investors more protection.

Steer's call follows news last week that banks, asset managers and insurers with $130 trillion at their disposal had pledged to align their investments with the U.N. goal of reaching 'net zero' greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Currently, very little of that capital is likely to be allocated to emerging market countries, Steer said.

He said the development banking system was "not big enough to play the role it needs to play", and more innovative thinking was required.

"At the moment, we aren't getting the leverage from public funds into the multilateral development banks the way we need to," Steer said. "We need ... to convene some very serious thoughts about this."

The Earth Fund last week pledged $2 billion towards projects aimed at restoring land and bolstering food systems, adding to a $1 billion pledge in September to help protect biodiversity and fund conservation projects. (Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Inflation puts White House on defensive as Manchin raises concerns about new spending

Seung Min Kim,Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager,

 (c) 2021, The Washington Post

Wed, November 10, 2021, 6:02 PM·

BALTIMORE - The White House was thrown on the defensive Wednesday by an inflation report that showed the largest annual increase in prices in three decades, triggering fresh criticisms of President Joe Biden's legislative plans on Capitol Hill and raising questions about what the administration can do to stem the politically perilous tide of rising prices.

High inflation risks undercutting one of Biden's central messages - that he has made life better for average Americans by creating millions of jobs, overseeing a jump in wages, creating new social programs and delivering millions of vaccines. That may be a harder case to make if many Americans see the prices of their groceries and other goods continue to climb.

In an appearance at the Port of Baltimore to promote his freshly passed bipartisan infrastructure bill, Biden took a distinctly sympathetic tone, noting the pain that consumers feel when they see rising costs for a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread. He suggested his agenda is the best way to lower costs for American families.

"We still face challenges, and we have to tackle them. We have to tackle them head on," Biden said. "Many people remain unsettled about the economy, and we know why. They see higher prices. They go to the store or go online and can't find what they want."

But in the meantime, inflation presents a growing political problem. Polling suggests voters are anxious over growing costs. Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va. - whose vote, like that of 49 other Senate Democrats, is key to enacting Biden's social spending bill - cited rising inflation as a reason to pause on some parts of the White House's agenda.

"By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not 'transitory' and is instead getting worse," Manchin said in a statement Wednesday. "From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and D.C. can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day." Manchin was making a cutting reference to earlier claims by the White House that rising prices were a transitory side effect of the economy's emergence from the pandemic.

His comments signaled a concern that more government spending could exacerbate inflation, alarming some Democrats that he would pull back from supporting the $1.75 trillion social safety net and climate package that is currently pending in Congress.

The new flurry of reactions was prompted by a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Wednesday that prices in October rose 0.9% from September - and more than 6% over the past year, the largest annual rise in 30 years. In a written statement released soon after that report, Biden said "inflation hurts Americans' pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me."

Senior White House officials were greatly disappointed by Wednesday's report and surprised at how serious the inflationary problems are throughout the economy, according to people familiar with the matter. The report also fueled mounting concerns about supply chain bottlenecks.

For weeks, administration officials have been scrambling to try to alleviate the economic problems, frequently convening meetings across agencies and searching for solutions. But many administration officials have conceded they have few policy options to bring immediate relief to Americans, and the White House is concerned about ongoing political fallout, especially around the holiday season.

Republicans are ramping up their efforts to tie inflation to Biden's spending policies, and they seized on Wednesday's report.

"This will be the most expensive Thanksgiving in the history of the holiday," tweeted Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. "The American people don't deserve Biden's #ThanksgivingTax!"

Such comments are part of a broader GOP effort to paint a picture of a Biden economy that is out of control, despite notable job growth and wage increases.

Most economists say there is a limited amount presidents can do to control inflation, especially when an economy is emerging from a drastic slowdown like the one imposed by the pandemic. But Biden, who likes to talk about the concerns of working-class Americans like his former neighbors in Scranton, Pa., is acutely aware of the political perils of pocketbook issues.

Biden's trip to the Port of Baltimore was intended to provide a backdrop for his argument that the bipartisan infrastructure bill recently approved by Congress would ease transportation bottlenecks that are holding up goods and driving up their cost. "This bill is going to reduce the cost of goods to consumers, businesses and get people back to work," Biden said.

The White House has been increasingly focused on trying to clear backlogs in the U.S. supply chain, with teams of administration officials looking for ways to expand the capacities of ports and waterways.

The inflationary headaches have proven a political and economic challenge for the White House since soon after it led passage of a $1.9 trillion covid relief package in March.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other White House officials initially said inflation would prove "transitory," rejecting criticism from some economists that the relief plan would lead to an overheating of the economy. They have been largely consistent in sticking to their message that inflation would fade with time, but have been forced to adjust that argument as inflation has continued to dominate voters' concerns throughout the year.

A Fox News poll in October found that 53% of registered voters were extremely concerned about inflation and higher prices, exceeding 11 other concerns including unemployment, the federal deficit and crime. More broadly, an NBC News poll in late October found 57% of Americans disapproved of Biden's handling of the economy, while 40% approved.

White House officials remain optimistic the inflationary pressures will eventually subside. Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council on Economic Advisers, said in a speech earlier this week that the average forecast saw inflation eventually falling from 4-5% to 2-3%.

Like other economists and administration officials, Bernstein noted that many Americans spent less on services during the pandemic - when many establishments were closed, from restaurants to massage parlors - and shifted their spending to goods, driving up their prices. Eventually those spending patterns will return to normal, he added.

"The pandemic has opened up an historically large gap between demand for goods and services," Bernstein said. "And that strong goods demand, partially due to fiscal relief, has interacted with covid to temporarily juice price growth."

But it is not clear whether inflation will slow in time to prevent Democrats from suffering political damage in the 2022 midterm elections, where they already face a difficult landscape. Even if prices come down in coming months, political analysts say, many voters may retain an image of costs climbing during Biden's administration.

Economists are divided on what the rise of inflation means for Biden's broader economic agenda, which has been tied up for months in Congress. Since the president's infrastructure bill recently won approval, the focus has been on the $1.75 trillion climate and family bill that Biden calls Build Back Better.

Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary who has been warning about rising inflation for months, said Wednesday's report shows the problem is "becoming more entrenched."

"It seems to me unlikely inflation will return to 2 percent target levels without strong monetary policy action or some kind of interference with economic growth," he said in an interview.

Summers attributes the persistent inflation to Biden's covid relief package, but said he supports the infrastructure and social spending bills. "Together, they are smaller over 10 years than this past year's stimulus was over a single year, and in addition they are substantially paid for," Summers said.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, disagreed, attributing the inflation rate to the impact of covid-19, particularly the delta variant, rather than the relief package.

"This surge in inflation we're observing is a direct result of the pandemic. And if that diagnosis is correct, as the Delta wave wanes, inflation will moderate," Zandi said. "I think we're seeing the worst of the inflation right now."

Zandi said the inflation is not transitory in the sense that it will disappear in the next month or the next quarter, but it will continue to wane in the coming months and "be gone by the next year." For that reason, he argued current inflationary trends should not factor into the debate over Biden's economic agenda.

"I don't think we can take any lessons from high inflation now to what it means for the efficacy of passing that legislation," he said of the Build Back Better framework. "They're not connected."

A senior administration official said the White House had always expected the recovery from the pandemic to be uneven, given the unprecedented nature of reopening an economy after it was so thoroughly shut down during the pandemic.

The official disputed any notion that the president's economic agenda - either the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure deal or the pending Build Back Better legislation - would exacerbate the inflationary problems. Instead, the official argued Biden's agenda would help alleviate the problem because both pieces of legislation are focused on increasing economic capacity.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers and Office of Management and Budget have published analyses arguing the Build Back Better legislation would actually lower prices for most American families by cutting the cost of prescription drugs, child care and housing.

"Going forward, it is important that Congress pass my Build Back Better plan, which is fully paid for and does not add to the debt, and will get more Americans working by reducing the cost of child care and elder care, and help directly lower costs for American families by providing more affordable health coverage and prescription drugs," Biden said in a statement.

Others are skeptical. Ben Ritz, director of the Center for Funding America's Future, a D.C. think tank, cited concerns that the Build Back Better agenda would add significantly to next years's deficit because money for new programs would be spent before the taxes to pay for them could be collected.

That, in turn, could drive up prices further, Ritz suggested. "I don't see how we can do that when inflation is two to three times our target," he said.

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Stein and Pager reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed to this report.

India Sends Thousands More Troops To Restive Kashmir

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

By AFP News
11/10/21 

India has sent thousands more paramilitary troops into its section of Kashmir, already one of the world's most militarised zones, after a string of targeted killings by suspected rebels in recent weeks, officials said Wednesday.

New Delhi has for decades stationed at least 500,000 soldiers in the divided Himalayan territory, which is also claimed and partially controlled by arch-rival Pakistan.

"Around 2,500 troops have arrived and they were deployed all over Kashmir valley," Abhiram Pankaj, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), told AFP.

More were on their way to the restive territory, he added.

Around 5,000 extra paramilitaries in all were being deployed from this week, including from India's Border Security Force (BSF), according to a police officer speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Some of the troops are housed in civilian community halls that have been fortified with new sandbag bunkers, reminiscent of the early 1990s when an armed insurgency against Indian rule was at its peak.

That rebellion has significantly waned in the years since tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, were killed in the conflict.

   

Indian paramilitary troops stand guard on a street in Srinagar 

Photo: AFP / TAUSEEF MUSTAFA

A dozen people have been gunned down since last month in what appeared to be targeted assassinations, including police, migrant workers from northern Indian states and local members of the Sikh and Hindu communities.

Rebel groups, who have since 1989 fought for Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan, are believed to be responsible for the attacks.

Some of those killed were accused by the Resistance Front, a local rebel group, of being in the employ of security forces.

Police and paramilitary troops in bulletproof gear and wielding automatic rifles have intensified frisk searches of residents, including children, on the streets.

Newly deployed troops are now visible around many new checkpoints set up in recent weeks across the main city of Srinagar.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.

Anger has simmered in the region since August 2019 when New Delhi revoked its partial autonomy and brought its section of Kashmir under direct rule.

Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.

Lionfish -- An Invasive Menace Terrorizing Venezuela's Coast


By Patrick FORT
11/11/21 

The dazzling, colorful lionfish is a must for any exotic aquarium, but it has also become a major threat to the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean.

"It's beautiful, but you have to kill it," says Mavi Escalona, a Venezuelan nurse and amateur spearfisher.

"It causes a lot of damage, and it's delicious!"

The spectacular, stripey lionfish with its venemous spines is a carnivore originally from the Indian and Pacific oceans that has now become an invasive species in the Atlantic and Caribbean, posing a threat to their ecosystems.

Known by many other names such as zebrafish, tastyfish and butterfly-cod, the lionfish can now be found from Florida to northern Brazil.

And it has a voracious appetite: eggs, small fish, crustaceans, molluscs. It is at least partly responsible -- alongside over-fishing, pollution and climate change -- for a drop in the numbers of other fish in the area.

Fisherman William Alvarez cuts off the poisonous spines from a lionfish while cleaning it to prepare ceviche that he sells to tourists on the beach of Chichiviriche de la Costa, Vargas state, Venezuela, on October 30, 2021 Photo: AFP / Yuri CORTEZ

"It's an invasive fish. It doesn't have competitors or predators," said Laura Gutierrez, a Venezuelan biologist now based in the Canary Islands of Spain but who studied lionfish for many years in her homeland.

The lionfish was first spotted in the Caribbean in 1985.

"People that had them in their aquarium released them because they ate their other fish or it was difficult to feed them," said Gutierrez.

"It is eating all the commercial fish, crustaceans, fish and molluscs that keep reefs and corals clean, fish that eat algae."

What happens in an aquarium takes place on a much larger scale in the Caribbean, and could do so, too, in the Mediterranean, which lionfish have started to colonize.

"We're not talking about eradicating them, you can't. It's very difficult but we're talking about minimizing their impact," said Gutierrez.

Fisherman William Alvarez comes out of the water with a lionfish, an invasive species that is terrorizing Venezuela's coast Photo: AFP / Yuri CORTEZ

Venezuelan authorities have organized fishing competitions and promoted eating lionfish to try to stymy their inexorable spread.

"The only ones that can control them are us: fishermen," said Willy Alvarez, 35, a dreadlocked spearfisher in Chichiviriche de la Costa, a small village between the sea and the mountains, around 60 kilometers west of Caracas.

Alvarez, with his permanent smile, heads out to sea every day with his mask, snorkel and harpoon.

"The first time I saw one was in 2008 or 2009 ... I caught it to put in an aquarium," he said after climbing back on board his boat, a lionfish skewered on the end of his spear.

A tourist eats ceviche prepared with lionfish on the beach of Chichiviriche de la Costa, Vargas state, Venezuela 

Photo: AFP / Yuri CORTEZ

"Their reproduction is incredible: 30,000 to 40,000 eggs every three to four days."

He catches one every day and turns it into a ceviche -- a marinated raw fish dish -- to sell on the beach to passers by.

It's not a very profitable business. To produce one kilogram of ceviche, which sells for $20, he needs to catch three kilograms of lionfish, meaning dozens of free dives -- each one lasting around 40 seconds. And then there's the time taken to prepare the dish.

"It's a lot of effort. I can't live off that but one lionfish less is thousands of little fish it won't eat. It's satisfying to help the ecosystem," he said.

A decade ago, the lionfish was still unknown off the Venezuelan coast and its sudden appearance caused fear amongst many locals.

It's curious beauty and venemous spines that can cause sharp pain or even paralysis have contributed to the mystery around what many locals call the devilfish.

Some even think they are spirits.

Unsurprisingly, it is little eaten here.

"We have to involve the local community," said Gutierrez.

"We have to explain what the fish is. We have to explain that it's edible, that it's tasty."

The spines and skin can also be used to make jewelry.

"If we create demand, we'll ensure more are taken out of the sea and that will help limit the population," she added.

"Delicious" exclaimed Genesis Palma, a 20-year-old cashier, tasting lionfish for the first time in Chichiriviche.

"Lionfish is the best," added Juan Carlos Gutierrez, one of Alvarez's clients.

"It's better than lobster, better than caviar!"