Friday, January 28, 2022
RIGHT WING MILLIONAIRES ON WHEELS
Freedom Convoy plans to gridlock Ottawa until all vaccine mandates repealedTHE MANDATE APPLIES TO BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER AMERICAN AND CANADIAN
Up to 2,000 trucks are due on Saturday, but there will be events every day until the convoy receives an answer from the government
Author of the article:Rachel Parent
Publishing date:Jan 27, 2022 •
The Freedom Convoy 2022, which is expected to start rolling into Ottawa on Saturday, is not about COVID-19 vaccines, but about mandates, organizers say.
PHOTO BY TODD HAMBLETON/POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Thousands of vehicles could snarl Ottawa traffic for up to a week, with a convoy of truckers due to arrive as early as Friday — and some vowing to stay until they’ve successfully convinced the government to repeal all vaccine mandates.
Thousands of vehicles could snarl Ottawa traffic for up to a week, with a convoy of truckers due to arrive as early as Friday — and some vowing to stay until they’ve successfully convinced the government to repeal all vaccine mandates.
The convoy was planned in response to a vaccine mandate that came into effect this month requiring unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States to get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine. But the group is calling for all levels of Canadian government to stop the use of vaccine passports, waive fines linked to COVID-19 and reinstate employees who were fired for breaking COVID-19 rules.
“This is not about the vaccine, by the way. There’s nobody in here that’ll tell you it’s about vaccines on this entire convoy. We’ve got double jabbed, we’ve got single jabbed, we’ve got no jabbed, we’ve got the boosted,” said James Bauder, founder of the Canada Unity Foundation, one of the groups that is organizing the “Freedom Convoy 2022.”
We’ve got double jabbed, we’ve got single jabbed, we’ve got no jabbed, we’ve got the boostedJAMES BAUDER, FOUNDER, CANADA UNITY FOUNDATION“It’s not about the vaccine. It’s about the mandate…. We’re done with mandates.”
While truckers from Ontario will arrive in Ottawa on Friday, the majority will arrive on Saturday, and that’s when the protest will begin in earnest, said Jason LaFlace, an organizer who previously planned events and protests for a group called No More Lockdowns.
“The first day is going to be the 29th. We’re just going to go on a roll. And that will be the starting point, to get ourselves set up. On the 31st, the Monday, that’s the first day of business for Ottawa and for us, us freedom fighters, and Canadians all across the country. And we’re expecting a huge amount,” LaFlace said.
The plan is to essentially gridlock the city, while leaving room for traffic to businesses and emergency vehicles to get through, LaFlace said.
Ontario protestors who will be converging in solidarity with a convoy of truckers expected to arrive in Ottawa this weekend (Monte Sonnenberg /Postmedia)
While an itinerary hasn’t been released to the public, LaFlace said organizers have arranged speakers — including politicians, truckers and Indigenous elders — and a stage will be set up in an undisclosed park on Monday. There will be events every day until the convoy receives an answer from the government.
A “memorandum of understanding,” posted on the Canada Unity website, says its coalition is opposed to restrictions and mandates related to COVID-19, rules it deems are “unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating.”
The memorandum’s goal, it says, is to form a committee with the Senate and Governor General to override all levels of Canadian government, and if they refuse to join, the group says they should “resign their lawful positions of authority immediately.”
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was a “small fringe minority who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views.”
“What we are hearing from some people associated with this convoy is completely unacceptable,” he added.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said he is “concerned about the small number of far-right, vocal opposition that is polluting much of our political debate.”
A spokeswoman for the Governor General said Rideau Hall was “keeping on top of the situation and waiting to see how things unfold.”
The Parliamentary Protection Service said in a statement it was aware of the protest and was closely monitoring the situation.
Ottawa police are communicating with the organizers and planning for the arrival of around 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles, police said Wednesday at a special meeting of the Ottawa Police Services Board. Ontario Provincial Police warned that the convoy could cause slowdowns on all highways across eastern Ontario beginning as soon as Thursday.
Ottawa police said that the Freedom Convoy had so far been peaceful and cooperative with police and city officials in other jurisdictions.
“We don’t have any risk information to suggest that people or business owners need to barricade themselves into their homes or businesses or that they need to close,” said Chief Peter Sloly.
But he warned that the protest could be accompanied by other elements, including counter-protests, which are harder to predict.
LaFlace and other organizers have emphasized that they are not planning violence.
While an itinerary hasn’t been released to the public, LaFlace said organizers have arranged speakers — including politicians, truckers and Indigenous elders — and a stage will be set up in an undisclosed park on Monday. There will be events every day until the convoy receives an answer from the government.
A “memorandum of understanding,” posted on the Canada Unity website, says its coalition is opposed to restrictions and mandates related to COVID-19, rules it deems are “unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating.”
The memorandum’s goal, it says, is to form a committee with the Senate and Governor General to override all levels of Canadian government, and if they refuse to join, the group says they should “resign their lawful positions of authority immediately.”
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was a “small fringe minority who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views.”
“What we are hearing from some people associated with this convoy is completely unacceptable,” he added.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said he is “concerned about the small number of far-right, vocal opposition that is polluting much of our political debate.”
A spokeswoman for the Governor General said Rideau Hall was “keeping on top of the situation and waiting to see how things unfold.”
The Parliamentary Protection Service said in a statement it was aware of the protest and was closely monitoring the situation.
Ottawa police are communicating with the organizers and planning for the arrival of around 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles, police said Wednesday at a special meeting of the Ottawa Police Services Board. Ontario Provincial Police warned that the convoy could cause slowdowns on all highways across eastern Ontario beginning as soon as Thursday.
Ottawa police said that the Freedom Convoy had so far been peaceful and cooperative with police and city officials in other jurisdictions.
“We don’t have any risk information to suggest that people or business owners need to barricade themselves into their homes or businesses or that they need to close,” said Chief Peter Sloly.
But he warned that the protest could be accompanied by other elements, including counter-protests, which are harder to predict.
LaFlace and other organizers have emphasized that they are not planning violence.
We don't have any intent to create violenceORGANIZER JASON LAFLACE
“We’ve been hearing things like, ‘Oh, you’re a domestic terrorist,’” La Place said. “We don’t have any intent to create violence.”
Tamara Lich, who organized the GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $5.5 million, said in a recent Facebook video that convoy participants should report anyone who is “misbehaving, acting aggressively in any way or inciting any type of violence or hatred,” to the police.
Tim Coderre, one of the organizers tasked with logistics, is working out of a school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., that Canada Unity is using as their headquarters. He said he doesn’t have a firm number on how many people will arrive in Ottawa, but reports from the road indicate that it’s a lot.
“All I’ve been hearing within the last couple hours is something in a range of 90 to 100 km of convoy. It seems awfully long to me and what I can tell you is that I’ve gotten call, call after call. It’s been nonstop,” Coderre said on Tuesday.
Truckers protesting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for those crossing the Canada-U.S. border on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
PHOTO BY DAVID LIPNOWSKI /THE CANADIAN PRESS
Videos posted to social media have shown kilometres-long lines of trucks and other vehicles filling up highways, with crowds of dozens of people waving flags and cheering the convoys on from roadsides and overpasses.
The convoy is scheduled to stay for a week in Ottawa, until Feb. 4, but Coderre says it depends on when or if they get an answer from the federal government.
“I can tell you that they’ve also vowed to, if need be, to stay for however long it takes for the mandates to be lifted,” said Coderre.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that about 15 per cent of truckers — as many as 16,000 — are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.
Chris Barber is a trucker from Saskatchewan and another organizer. He left for Ottawa on Jan. 24.
He said some of the truckers in the convoy are out of work, having lost their jobs because they can no longer cross the border, while others are taking time off to support the effort.
“It should be a personal choice whether they want to get vaccinated. If they haven’t done it already, they’re probably not going to do it,” Barber said.
“The narrative out there is that we’re a bunch of unvaccinated socialists and sort of separatists. I’m actually fully vaccinated. I have a passport with me right now, this allows me to do the things that the government says I can do. And that’s exactly what we’re fed up with. We shouldn’t have to have a vaccine passport.”
National Post, with additional reporting from The Canadian Press and Ottawa Citizen
Videos posted to social media have shown kilometres-long lines of trucks and other vehicles filling up highways, with crowds of dozens of people waving flags and cheering the convoys on from roadsides and overpasses.
The convoy is scheduled to stay for a week in Ottawa, until Feb. 4, but Coderre says it depends on when or if they get an answer from the federal government.
“I can tell you that they’ve also vowed to, if need be, to stay for however long it takes for the mandates to be lifted,” said Coderre.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that about 15 per cent of truckers — as many as 16,000 — are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.
Chris Barber is a trucker from Saskatchewan and another organizer. He left for Ottawa on Jan. 24.
He said some of the truckers in the convoy are out of work, having lost their jobs because they can no longer cross the border, while others are taking time off to support the effort.
“It should be a personal choice whether they want to get vaccinated. If they haven’t done it already, they’re probably not going to do it,” Barber said.
“The narrative out there is that we’re a bunch of unvaccinated socialists and sort of separatists. I’m actually fully vaccinated. I have a passport with me right now, this allows me to do the things that the government says I can do. And that’s exactly what we’re fed up with. We shouldn’t have to have a vaccine passport.”
National Post, with additional reporting from The Canadian Press and Ottawa Citizen
O'Toole says he will meet with truckers, tells politicians to 'take the temperature down' over protest
WON'T TELL THEM TO GET VACCINATED
Meanwhile, the. Commons' Sergeant-of-Arms warned of attempts to have the home addresses of MPs posted online and told MPs to go 'somewhere safe' if needed
“And I would ask Canadians that are frustrated by the convoy, or frustrated by people that may not yet be vaccinated, let’s work together as a country.
“We shouldn’t divide people over their personal health choices in a pandemic.”
O’Toole said he would only be meeting with truckers not with the protest organizers, and he “will try and do it outside of the Hill core so it can be done effectively.”
Meanwhile, the Sergeant-of-Arms of the House of Commons warned MPs to go “somewhere safe” if there is a protest outside their home or office. He said there had been attempts to have the home addresses of MPs posted online.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decried the “fringe” views among some of those who were supporting the trucker convoy.
“The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know of that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values, as a country,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said Thursday he will isolate for five days after being exposed to COVID-19, although he has tested negative for the virus.
Author of the article: Catherine Lévesque
Publishing date: Jan 27, 2022
“Everyone deserves to have their voice heard in a peaceful protest. That is a democratic right,” Conservative leader Erin O'Toole said Thursday.
PHOTO BY DAVID JACKSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says a truckers convoy heading to Ottawa is a symbol of the fatigue and division being felt in Canada and that he will meet with the truckers on Friday to hear their concerns.
And he appealed for all political parties to call for calm and let the protesters have their voice heard.
He said there were groups using the plight of truckers to bring “division and hatred.”
“And we need to call that out and stamp it out because it’s also depriving people’s ability to have their voice heard in Ottawa,” said O’Toole. “So I’m calling on everyone… regardless of how you feel about the pandemic, whether you’re Liberal, Conservative, NDP, let’s call for calm.
“Everyone deserves to have their voice heard in a peaceful protest. That is a democratic right. So let’s take the temperature down. And make sure we work together as Canadians in a time of crisis. Not against one another.”
He added, “The convoy itself is becoming a symbol of the fatigue and the division we’re seeing in this country. So tomorrow I will be meeting with truckers to hear their concerns, to talk about the proposals I brought three weeks ago to try and make sure we can keep grocery store shelves full, keep people working and work together.
How the truck convoy could wreak havoc on Ottawa streets
Ottawa police brace for ‘parallel groups’ when trucker convoy reaches Ottawa
O'TOOLE HAS ANTIVAXXERS IN HIS CAUCUS
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says a truckers convoy heading to Ottawa is a symbol of the fatigue and division being felt in Canada and that he will meet with the truckers on Friday to hear their concerns.
And he appealed for all political parties to call for calm and let the protesters have their voice heard.
He said there were groups using the plight of truckers to bring “division and hatred.”
“And we need to call that out and stamp it out because it’s also depriving people’s ability to have their voice heard in Ottawa,” said O’Toole. “So I’m calling on everyone… regardless of how you feel about the pandemic, whether you’re Liberal, Conservative, NDP, let’s call for calm.
“Everyone deserves to have their voice heard in a peaceful protest. That is a democratic right. So let’s take the temperature down. And make sure we work together as Canadians in a time of crisis. Not against one another.”
He added, “The convoy itself is becoming a symbol of the fatigue and the division we’re seeing in this country. So tomorrow I will be meeting with truckers to hear their concerns, to talk about the proposals I brought three weeks ago to try and make sure we can keep grocery store shelves full, keep people working and work together.
How the truck convoy could wreak havoc on Ottawa streets
Ottawa police brace for ‘parallel groups’ when trucker convoy reaches Ottawa
O'TOOLE HAS ANTIVAXXERS IN HIS CAUCUS
“And I would ask Canadians that are frustrated by the convoy, or frustrated by people that may not yet be vaccinated, let’s work together as a country.
“We shouldn’t divide people over their personal health choices in a pandemic.”
O’Toole said he would only be meeting with truckers not with the protest organizers, and he “will try and do it outside of the Hill core so it can be done effectively.”
Meanwhile, the Sergeant-of-Arms of the House of Commons warned MPs to go “somewhere safe” if there is a protest outside their home or office. He said there had been attempts to have the home addresses of MPs posted online.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decried the “fringe” views among some of those who were supporting the trucker convoy.
“The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know of that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values, as a country,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said Thursday he will isolate for five days after being exposed to COVID-19, although he has tested negative for the virus.
WITH SUPPORT FROM LIBERTARIAN BILLIONAIRES
Elon Musk tweets in support of Canadian truckers ahead of 'Freedom Rally' protest
Musk also appears to show support for repealing COVID mandates in later tweets
Author of the article: National Post Staff
Musk also appears to show support for repealing COVID mandates in later tweets
Author of the article: National Post Staff
Publishing date :Jan 27, 2022 •
Judging by later tweets, Musk also seemed to support repealing of vaccine mandates.
PHOTO BY TWITTER
Article content
Elon Musk tweeted in favour of Canadian truckers as a convoy heads to Ottawa to protest COVID regulations across the country.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was seemingly throwing his support behind the protesters in a tweet Thursday afternoon.
“Canadian truckers rule,” tweeted Musk, who was born to a Canadian mother. He holds citizenship with United States, Canada and South Africa.
A convoy of truckers and others opposed to public health restrictions is on its way from British Columbia to Parliament Hill for a “freedom rally” this weekend against mandatory vaccinations in Canada. Police in Ottawa have said they are planning for as many as 2,000 demonstrators.
The federal government ended truckers’ exemption to the vaccine mandate on Jan. 15, meaning Canadian truck drivers need to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a two-week quarantine when they cross into Canada from the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the protesters a “small fringe minority who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views.”
In his later tweets, Musk appears to show support for repealing vaccine mandates. He sent a thumbs up emoji to a tweet alleging Denmark is planning to “stop all measures Jan. 31,” in reference to COVID vaccinations. In another he sent a supportive ‘100’ emoji to a doctor and fitness guru who wrote that he was in favour of COVID vaccines but not mandates requiring them.
Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly told a police services board meeting Wednesday that officers had been in contact with protest leaders, whom he said have been co-operative and have shared their plans. However, concerns have also been raised that far-right extremist groups have attached themselves to the convoy and could spark violence.
While an itinerary hasn’t been released to the public, Jason LaFlace, an organizer who previously planned events and protests for a group called No More Lockdowns, said organizers have arranged speakers — including politicians, truckers and Indigenous elders — and a stage will be set up in an undisclosed park on Monday. There will be events every day until Ottawa exempts them again.
A “memorandum of understanding,” posted on the Canada Unity website, says its coalition is opposed to restrictions and mandates related to COVID-19, rules it deems are “unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating.”
The memorandum says, it says, is to coordinate efforts to form a committee with the Senate and Governor General to override all levels of Canadian government, and if they refuse to join, the group says they should “resign their lawful positions of authority immediately.”
Donald Trump Jr. also took to social media Tuesday to endorse the Canadian truck convoy’s fight against “tyranny” and to urge Americans to follow suit.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that about 15 per cent of truckers — as many as 16,000 — are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.
A spokesperson for Musk could not immediately be reached for comment.
— With additional reporting by The Canadian Press and Rachel Parent
Article content
Elon Musk tweeted in favour of Canadian truckers as a convoy heads to Ottawa to protest COVID regulations across the country.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was seemingly throwing his support behind the protesters in a tweet Thursday afternoon.
“Canadian truckers rule,” tweeted Musk, who was born to a Canadian mother. He holds citizenship with United States, Canada and South Africa.
A convoy of truckers and others opposed to public health restrictions is on its way from British Columbia to Parliament Hill for a “freedom rally” this weekend against mandatory vaccinations in Canada. Police in Ottawa have said they are planning for as many as 2,000 demonstrators.
The federal government ended truckers’ exemption to the vaccine mandate on Jan. 15, meaning Canadian truck drivers need to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a two-week quarantine when they cross into Canada from the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the protesters a “small fringe minority who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views.”
In his later tweets, Musk appears to show support for repealing vaccine mandates. He sent a thumbs up emoji to a tweet alleging Denmark is planning to “stop all measures Jan. 31,” in reference to COVID vaccinations. In another he sent a supportive ‘100’ emoji to a doctor and fitness guru who wrote that he was in favour of COVID vaccines but not mandates requiring them.
Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly told a police services board meeting Wednesday that officers had been in contact with protest leaders, whom he said have been co-operative and have shared their plans. However, concerns have also been raised that far-right extremist groups have attached themselves to the convoy and could spark violence.
While an itinerary hasn’t been released to the public, Jason LaFlace, an organizer who previously planned events and protests for a group called No More Lockdowns, said organizers have arranged speakers — including politicians, truckers and Indigenous elders — and a stage will be set up in an undisclosed park on Monday. There will be events every day until Ottawa exempts them again.
A “memorandum of understanding,” posted on the Canada Unity website, says its coalition is opposed to restrictions and mandates related to COVID-19, rules it deems are “unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating.”
The memorandum says, it says, is to coordinate efforts to form a committee with the Senate and Governor General to override all levels of Canadian government, and if they refuse to join, the group says they should “resign their lawful positions of authority immediately.”
Donald Trump Jr. also took to social media Tuesday to endorse the Canadian truck convoy’s fight against “tyranny” and to urge Americans to follow suit.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that about 15 per cent of truckers — as many as 16,000 — are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.
A spokesperson for Musk could not immediately be reached for comment.
— With additional reporting by The Canadian Press and Rachel Parent
Paris hospitals chief sparks debate on whether unvaccinated patients should pay for treatment
Geert De Clercq
Publishing date: Jan 27, 2022
PARIS — The head of the Paris hospitals system has set off a fierce debate by questioning whether people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should continue to have their treatment covered by public health insurance.
Under France’s universal healthcare system, all COVID-19 patients who end up in intensive care are fully covered for their treatment, which costs about 3,000 euros ($3,340) per day and typically lasts a week to 10 days.
“When free and efficient drugs are available, should people be able to renounce it without consequences … while we struggle to take care of other patients?” Paris AP-HP hospitals system chief Martin Hirsch said on French television on Wednesday.
Hirsch said he raised the issue because health costs are exploding and that the irresponsible behavior of some should not jeopardize the availability of the system for everyone else.
Several French health professionals rejected his proposal, far-right politicians called for Hirsch to be fired, and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo – who chairs the AP-HP board and who is the socialist candidate in the April presidential elections – said she disagreed with his proposal.
A hashtag calling for Hirsch’s dismissal was trending on Twitter in France.
Health Minister Olivier Veran has not commented on Hirsch’s call but Olga Givernet, a lawmaker for President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party, said on BFM TV on Thursday that “the issue as raised by the medical community could not be ignored.”
A mid-January IFOP poll https://www.ifop.com/publication/limpact-de-la-non-vaccination-dans-lopinion showed that 51% of French people considered it was justified that non-vaccinated people who wind up in intensive care should pay part or all of their hospital bill.
Conservative Les Republicains lawmaker Sebastien Huyghe – whose bill to make the unvaccinated pay some of their medical costs was rejected by parliament – said the idea was not to reject the non-vaccinated from intensive care wards, but to make them pay a minimum contribution toward the cost of their care.
The proposal would be similar to Singapore, a city-state with one of the world’s highest COVID-19 inoculation rates in the world, where people who decline vaccines must pay for their medical treatment.
The median bill size for COVID-19 patients that require intensive care is about S$25,000 ($18,483), according to Singapore’s health ministry. ($1 = 0.8973 euros) ($1 = 1.3526 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Geert De Clercq, additional reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
Geert De Clercq
Publishing date: Jan 27, 2022
PARIS — The head of the Paris hospitals system has set off a fierce debate by questioning whether people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should continue to have their treatment covered by public health insurance.
Under France’s universal healthcare system, all COVID-19 patients who end up in intensive care are fully covered for their treatment, which costs about 3,000 euros ($3,340) per day and typically lasts a week to 10 days.
“When free and efficient drugs are available, should people be able to renounce it without consequences … while we struggle to take care of other patients?” Paris AP-HP hospitals system chief Martin Hirsch said on French television on Wednesday.
Hirsch said he raised the issue because health costs are exploding and that the irresponsible behavior of some should not jeopardize the availability of the system for everyone else.
Several French health professionals rejected his proposal, far-right politicians called for Hirsch to be fired, and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo – who chairs the AP-HP board and who is the socialist candidate in the April presidential elections – said she disagreed with his proposal.
A hashtag calling for Hirsch’s dismissal was trending on Twitter in France.
Health Minister Olivier Veran has not commented on Hirsch’s call but Olga Givernet, a lawmaker for President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party, said on BFM TV on Thursday that “the issue as raised by the medical community could not be ignored.”
A mid-January IFOP poll https://www.ifop.com/publication/limpact-de-la-non-vaccination-dans-lopinion showed that 51% of French people considered it was justified that non-vaccinated people who wind up in intensive care should pay part or all of their hospital bill.
Conservative Les Republicains lawmaker Sebastien Huyghe – whose bill to make the unvaccinated pay some of their medical costs was rejected by parliament – said the idea was not to reject the non-vaccinated from intensive care wards, but to make them pay a minimum contribution toward the cost of their care.
The proposal would be similar to Singapore, a city-state with one of the world’s highest COVID-19 inoculation rates in the world, where people who decline vaccines must pay for their medical treatment.
The median bill size for COVID-19 patients that require intensive care is about S$25,000 ($18,483), according to Singapore’s health ministry. ($1 = 0.8973 euros) ($1 = 1.3526 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Geert De Clercq, additional reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
Judge cancels major US oil and gas exploration sale
Thu, January 27, 2022
A judge on Thursday canceled the sale of oil and gas exploration leases of some 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, after environmental groups sued the Biden administration citing major concerns.
Federal District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras declared existing contracts invalid, saying the Department of the Interior did not adequately consider the leases' impact on climate change when issuing them.
According to the ruling, officials had used outdated analyses to calculate the leases' effects on the environment and said the government must run a new analysis with current data.
The administration had in August announced its intention to sell the rights to the Gulf exploration, a decision decried by environmental activists and seen as a stumbling block for President Joe Biden's climate agenda.
A coalition of environmentalist groups sued to prevent the sales.
"We are pleased that the court invalidated Interior's illegal lease sale," Brettny Hardy, a lawyer for climate group Earthjustice, which represents the coalition, said in a statement.
"We simply cannot continue to make investments in the fossil fuel industry to the peril of our communities and increasingly warming planet," she said.
The Gulf of Mexico, located along the southeastern United States, is one of the most important oil production regions in the country.
Biden last January had announced a moratorium on new gas and oil drilling on federal land pending a review in an effort to make responding to the climate crisis a central part of his presidency.
But a federal judge in Louisiana, nominated by former president Donald Trump, ruled in June that the administration had to get congressional approval for such a move.
led/ybl/caw/bfm
Thu, January 27, 2022
A judge on Thursday canceled the sale of oil and gas exploration leases of some 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, after environmental groups sued the Biden administration citing major concerns.
Federal District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras declared existing contracts invalid, saying the Department of the Interior did not adequately consider the leases' impact on climate change when issuing them.
According to the ruling, officials had used outdated analyses to calculate the leases' effects on the environment and said the government must run a new analysis with current data.
The administration had in August announced its intention to sell the rights to the Gulf exploration, a decision decried by environmental activists and seen as a stumbling block for President Joe Biden's climate agenda.
A coalition of environmentalist groups sued to prevent the sales.
"We are pleased that the court invalidated Interior's illegal lease sale," Brettny Hardy, a lawyer for climate group Earthjustice, which represents the coalition, said in a statement.
"We simply cannot continue to make investments in the fossil fuel industry to the peril of our communities and increasingly warming planet," she said.
The Gulf of Mexico, located along the southeastern United States, is one of the most important oil production regions in the country.
Biden last January had announced a moratorium on new gas and oil drilling on federal land pending a review in an effort to make responding to the climate crisis a central part of his presidency.
But a federal judge in Louisiana, nominated by former president Donald Trump, ruled in June that the administration had to get congressional approval for such a move.
led/ybl/caw/bfm
'Heart of Gold': Neil Young takes a stand against Spotify, puts 'principles above profit'
Neil Young's music is being removed from Spotify's streaming service after the singer-songwriter released a letter addressed to his manager and record label, Warner Music Group, demanding that Spotify no longer carry his music. The legendary musician and celebrated activist, twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, objects to having his music on the same platform that features podcasts from the fiery polemicist and ever-popular comedian Joe Rogan for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. Simon Vozick-Levinson, Deputy Music Editor for Rolling Stone, joins France 24 and lauds the "very bold, and, I think, brave choice that Neil Young has made to put his principles above profit." Now that streaming accounts for over 80% of music industry revenue, Mr. Levinson asserts that cutting ties with the reigning music streaming giant Spotify "is no easy choice for a musician. But this is a very personal issue for Neil Young. He had polio when he was a kid, vaccines mean something very important to him, and I think he sees the danger of spreading misinformation about life-saving vaccines." Mr. Levinson also sees this battle over hearts and minds as a defining moment for Spotify, which is "a huge source of both music and also ideas, conversations, thoughts. And that gives it an important responsibility that I think many in the world are calling for them to take seriously."
Neil Young-Spotify row underscores podcast disinformation issues
Rocker Neil Young, left, made good on his vow to have his music removed from Spotify after demanding the streaming service choose between him and Joe Rogan, the controversial podcaster accused of spreading disinformation
Rocker Neil Young, left, made good on his vow to have his music removed from Spotify after demanding the streaming service choose between him and Joe Rogan, the controversial podcaster accused of spreading disinformation
(AFP/Alice Chiche, Carmen Mandato)
Maggy DONALDSON
Thu, January 27, 2022
Neil Young's ultimatum to Spotify that it choose between his music and the controversial star podcaster Joe Rogan has become a flashpoint in the conversation over online disinformation and corporate responsibility to moderate it.
The prolific rocker this week demanded the streaming giant remove his music -- he had 2.4 million followers and over six million monthly listeners -- unless it was willing to drop Rogan, whose show is the platform's most popular but is widely accused of peddling conspiracy theories.
Rogan, 54, has discouraged vaccination in young people and promoted the off-label use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to treat the virus.
"I realized I could not continue to support SPOTIFY's life threatening misinformation to the music loving public," Young, a polio survivor, said in an open letter.
His challenge followed a demand from hundreds of medical professionals that the streaming service prevent Rogan from promoting "several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines," which they said is creating "a sociological issue of devastating proportions."
Rogan, who has a $100 million multi-year exclusive deal with Spotify, was kept on. On Wednesday Young's hits -- including "Heart of Gold," "Harvest Moon" and "Rockin' In The Free World" -- began vanishing from the platform.
The company -- which on Wednesday voiced "regret" over Young's move but cited a need to balance "both safety for listeners and freedom for creators" -- did not respond to an AFP query seeking further comment.
Last year, its CEO Daniel Ek told Axios he didn't think Spotify -- which recently began heavily investing in podcasts -- had editorial responsibility for Rogan.
He compared the podcaster to "really well-paid rappers," saying "we don't dictate what they're putting in their songs, either."
- 'Business concerns' -
Spotify's move drew applause online from organizations including Rumble, a video streaming platform popular with the right wing, which credited the Swedish company with "defending creators" and standing "up for free speech."
But Young, 76, also garnered wide praise for taking a stand, including from the World Health Organization chief. The musician has urged fellow artists to follow his lead.
Summer Lopez, the senior director of the free expression programs at nonprofit PEN America, emphasized that "he's probably one of the only artists who could really afford to make this kind of call."
"He has every right to do that," said the advocate at PEN, an organization dedicated to defending free speech. But she voiced concern over "broader calls for boycotting of Spotify," because "it is such an essential venue for artists to reach their audiences, and a source of income."
The role of platforms like Spotify to moderate content is complex, Lopez said, because unlike social media outlets it's a service "designed primarily to amplify art and artwork."
"I think the real issue here is that Spotify doesn't have a clear policy on this," Lopez said.
And she raised questions of whether "there's any meaningful independence" between "the decision-making process and their business concerns."
- 'Mandating more clarity' -
In recent years online media titans including Facebook and YouTube have come under fire for allowing conspiracy theorists to spread their views.
But despite its explosive growth, podcasting has largely flown under the radar.
Valerie Wirtschafter, a senior data analyst at the Brookings Institution who studies contemporary media and political behavior, said that's primarily because "it's such a big and decentralized space."
But she said audio is a particularly potent medium for spreading falsehoods: "There's a sort of personal experience that happens there."
The intimacy of sound combined with the conversational style of podcasts, Wirtschafter told AFP, allows listeners to process information in a way that "potentially makes it a stronger medium for these untruths, for this misinformation, to fester."
And tracking disinformation in a podcast is "kind of like the needle in the haystack," according to Wirtschafter. Episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" often fall in the two-to-three-hour range.
Moderation possibilities include disclaimers before episodes, Wirtschafter said, and platforms that host podcasts could also take steps to mediate their algorithms so they aren't "amplifying... harmful content."
Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist specializing in conspiracy theories at the University of Miami, meanwhile cautioned against giving any "tools of censorship" to government to combat disinformation.
"They can be used for benevolent reasons today, but those same tools will be available tomorrow for people who aren't quite as benevolent."
Lopez agreed, but cited a need for "mandating more clarity on how these decisions are being made, how appeals are handled."
"Giving researchers access to understand what the implications of those decisions are," she said, could help "better understand what the impact of different approaches might be."
For his part, Young dismissed accusations of promoting censorship.
"I did this because I had no choice in my heart," he wrote. "It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone."
"I am speaking my own truth."
mdo/caw
Maggy DONALDSON
Thu, January 27, 2022
Neil Young's ultimatum to Spotify that it choose between his music and the controversial star podcaster Joe Rogan has become a flashpoint in the conversation over online disinformation and corporate responsibility to moderate it.
The prolific rocker this week demanded the streaming giant remove his music -- he had 2.4 million followers and over six million monthly listeners -- unless it was willing to drop Rogan, whose show is the platform's most popular but is widely accused of peddling conspiracy theories.
Rogan, 54, has discouraged vaccination in young people and promoted the off-label use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to treat the virus.
"I realized I could not continue to support SPOTIFY's life threatening misinformation to the music loving public," Young, a polio survivor, said in an open letter.
His challenge followed a demand from hundreds of medical professionals that the streaming service prevent Rogan from promoting "several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines," which they said is creating "a sociological issue of devastating proportions."
Rogan, who has a $100 million multi-year exclusive deal with Spotify, was kept on. On Wednesday Young's hits -- including "Heart of Gold," "Harvest Moon" and "Rockin' In The Free World" -- began vanishing from the platform.
The company -- which on Wednesday voiced "regret" over Young's move but cited a need to balance "both safety for listeners and freedom for creators" -- did not respond to an AFP query seeking further comment.
Last year, its CEO Daniel Ek told Axios he didn't think Spotify -- which recently began heavily investing in podcasts -- had editorial responsibility for Rogan.
He compared the podcaster to "really well-paid rappers," saying "we don't dictate what they're putting in their songs, either."
- 'Business concerns' -
Spotify's move drew applause online from organizations including Rumble, a video streaming platform popular with the right wing, which credited the Swedish company with "defending creators" and standing "up for free speech."
But Young, 76, also garnered wide praise for taking a stand, including from the World Health Organization chief. The musician has urged fellow artists to follow his lead.
Summer Lopez, the senior director of the free expression programs at nonprofit PEN America, emphasized that "he's probably one of the only artists who could really afford to make this kind of call."
"He has every right to do that," said the advocate at PEN, an organization dedicated to defending free speech. But she voiced concern over "broader calls for boycotting of Spotify," because "it is such an essential venue for artists to reach their audiences, and a source of income."
The role of platforms like Spotify to moderate content is complex, Lopez said, because unlike social media outlets it's a service "designed primarily to amplify art and artwork."
"I think the real issue here is that Spotify doesn't have a clear policy on this," Lopez said.
And she raised questions of whether "there's any meaningful independence" between "the decision-making process and their business concerns."
- 'Mandating more clarity' -
In recent years online media titans including Facebook and YouTube have come under fire for allowing conspiracy theorists to spread their views.
But despite its explosive growth, podcasting has largely flown under the radar.
Valerie Wirtschafter, a senior data analyst at the Brookings Institution who studies contemporary media and political behavior, said that's primarily because "it's such a big and decentralized space."
But she said audio is a particularly potent medium for spreading falsehoods: "There's a sort of personal experience that happens there."
The intimacy of sound combined with the conversational style of podcasts, Wirtschafter told AFP, allows listeners to process information in a way that "potentially makes it a stronger medium for these untruths, for this misinformation, to fester."
And tracking disinformation in a podcast is "kind of like the needle in the haystack," according to Wirtschafter. Episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" often fall in the two-to-three-hour range.
Moderation possibilities include disclaimers before episodes, Wirtschafter said, and platforms that host podcasts could also take steps to mediate their algorithms so they aren't "amplifying... harmful content."
Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist specializing in conspiracy theories at the University of Miami, meanwhile cautioned against giving any "tools of censorship" to government to combat disinformation.
"They can be used for benevolent reasons today, but those same tools will be available tomorrow for people who aren't quite as benevolent."
Lopez agreed, but cited a need for "mandating more clarity on how these decisions are being made, how appeals are handled."
"Giving researchers access to understand what the implications of those decisions are," she said, could help "better understand what the impact of different approaches might be."
For his part, Young dismissed accusations of promoting censorship.
"I did this because I had no choice in my heart," he wrote. "It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone."
"I am speaking my own truth."
mdo/caw
Civil War Expert: U.S. Capitol Riot Made 1 Chilling Thing ‘Impossible To Deny’
Lee Moran
Thu, January 27, 2022
University of California professor Barbara Walter, an expert on civil conflicts, said the U.S. Capitol riot “made it impossible to deny and ignore that there really was this cancer growing” of anti-democratic sentiment in America.
Walter, after CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan showed her footage of Donald Trump supporters repeating the former president’s 2020 election lies and claiming democracy in the United States was dead, said her response to such rhetoric only 10 years ago “would have been shock and disbelief.”
“I would have thought, ‘Well she’s an outlier and she’s not representative of anything larger than a fringe movement maybe,’” Walter said. “But of course, that’s not the case anymore.”
Experts on civil wars had been talking about the warning signs in the U.S., “but nobody wanted to believe it,” Walter said.
“Citizens do believe what they are hearing and if they hear it long enough and consistently enough, and if that’s all they hear, they absolutely don’t think it’s a lie, they think it’s the truth,” she continued, referencing falsehoods promoted by Trump and his flatterers.
She slammed those cynical leaders for “feeding them lies consistently.”
“They’re priming their supporters to believe that democracy isn’t worth defending because they don’t want democracy anymore,” Walter said.
Thu, January 27, 2022
University of California professor Barbara Walter, an expert on civil conflicts, said the U.S. Capitol riot “made it impossible to deny and ignore that there really was this cancer growing” of anti-democratic sentiment in America.
Walter, after CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan showed her footage of Donald Trump supporters repeating the former president’s 2020 election lies and claiming democracy in the United States was dead, said her response to such rhetoric only 10 years ago “would have been shock and disbelief.”
“I would have thought, ‘Well she’s an outlier and she’s not representative of anything larger than a fringe movement maybe,’” Walter said. “But of course, that’s not the case anymore.”
Experts on civil wars had been talking about the warning signs in the U.S., “but nobody wanted to believe it,” Walter said.
“Citizens do believe what they are hearing and if they hear it long enough and consistently enough, and if that’s all they hear, they absolutely don’t think it’s a lie, they think it’s the truth,” she continued, referencing falsehoods promoted by Trump and his flatterers.
She slammed those cynical leaders for “feeding them lies consistently.”
“They’re priming their supporters to believe that democracy isn’t worth defending because they don’t want democracy anymore,” Walter said.
Civil war expert recoils in horror at interviews with Trump fans: 'They don’t want democracy anymore'
Travis Gettys
January 27, 2022
CNN
The U.S. recently fell out of the rankings of democratic nations, and one expert worries that it will happen again -- and tip the country into civil war.
Barbara Walter, a University of California professor and an expert on civil conflicts, recently wrote about the political volatility in the U.S. since the Jan. 6 insurrection, which dropped the country into the anocracy zone, and she told CNN the riot had made the deadly risks from Donald Trump's lies "impossible to deny and ignore."
"Anocracies are neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic; their citizens enjoy some elements of democratic rule (e.g., elections), while other rights (e.g., due process or freedom of the press) suffer," Walter wrote for the Washington Post. "In the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, the respected Center for Systemic Peace (CSP) calculated that, for the first time in more than two centuries, the United States no longer qualified as a democracy. It had, over the preceding five years, become an anocracy."
President Joe Biden's peaceful inauguration moved the polity ranking back into the democratic zone, but Walter warned the threat remained, putting the U.S. at real risk of additional violence and instability, and Walter reacted with alarm when a CNN host showed her interviews with Trump supporters who refused to accept the former president had lost the election.
"Well, 10 years ago, [my reaction] would have been shock and disbelief," Walter said. “I would have thought, ‘Well she’s an outlier and she’s not representative of anything larger than a fringe movement, maybe.' But of course, that’s not the case anymore.”
Walter and others who study civil conflict have been sounding the alarm for years, but she said no one wanted to believe the risks, but she said Trump and his right-wing media allies have corroded trust in democracy itself -- with already fatal results.
“Citizens do believe what they are hearing and if they hear it long enough and consistently enough and if that’s all they hear, they absolutely don’t think it’s a lie, they think it’s the truth,” Walter said.
"You know, they're good people," she added. "They are trying to do what they think is right. It's the leadership that's cynical. It's the leadership that knows better who is feeding them lies consistently. They’re priming their supporters to believe that democracy isn’t worth defending because they don’t want democracy anymore."
Travis Gettys
January 27, 2022
CNN
The U.S. recently fell out of the rankings of democratic nations, and one expert worries that it will happen again -- and tip the country into civil war.
Barbara Walter, a University of California professor and an expert on civil conflicts, recently wrote about the political volatility in the U.S. since the Jan. 6 insurrection, which dropped the country into the anocracy zone, and she told CNN the riot had made the deadly risks from Donald Trump's lies "impossible to deny and ignore."
"Anocracies are neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic; their citizens enjoy some elements of democratic rule (e.g., elections), while other rights (e.g., due process or freedom of the press) suffer," Walter wrote for the Washington Post. "In the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, the respected Center for Systemic Peace (CSP) calculated that, for the first time in more than two centuries, the United States no longer qualified as a democracy. It had, over the preceding five years, become an anocracy."
President Joe Biden's peaceful inauguration moved the polity ranking back into the democratic zone, but Walter warned the threat remained, putting the U.S. at real risk of additional violence and instability, and Walter reacted with alarm when a CNN host showed her interviews with Trump supporters who refused to accept the former president had lost the election.
"Well, 10 years ago, [my reaction] would have been shock and disbelief," Walter said. “I would have thought, ‘Well she’s an outlier and she’s not representative of anything larger than a fringe movement, maybe.' But of course, that’s not the case anymore.”
Walter and others who study civil conflict have been sounding the alarm for years, but she said no one wanted to believe the risks, but she said Trump and his right-wing media allies have corroded trust in democracy itself -- with already fatal results.
“Citizens do believe what they are hearing and if they hear it long enough and consistently enough and if that’s all they hear, they absolutely don’t think it’s a lie, they think it’s the truth,” Walter said.
"You know, they're good people," she added. "They are trying to do what they think is right. It's the leadership that's cynical. It's the leadership that knows better who is feeding them lies consistently. They’re priming their supporters to believe that democracy isn’t worth defending because they don’t want democracy anymore."
Six stand trial for spectacular German museum jewel heist
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Dresden's Green Vault museum was the site of a brazen night raid in 2019 (AFP/Sebastian Kahnert)
Sebastian Kahnert
Femke COLBORNE
Thu, January 27, 2022
Six members of a notorious criminal gang go on trial in Germany on Friday over a spectacular heist in which 18th-century jewels were snatched from a state museum in Dresden.
The suspects, aged 22 to 28, are accused of gang robbery and arson after the brazen night raid on the Green Vault museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on November 25, 2019.
To this day, there is still no trace of the jewels, including a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond.
While charging the men last year, prosecutors described the museum pieces as "extremely important in terms of art and cultural history".
The robbers took just eight minutes, cutting the power and breaking in through a window with which they had previously tampered.
Two men armed with an axe then stormed into the showroom and stole the jewels before fleeing in a car, which they torched in an underground car park.
The thieves grabbed 21 pieces of jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong, encrusted with more than 4,300 individual diamonds.
- Operation Epaulette -
Insurance experts say the loot is worth at least 113.8 million euros ($128 million), with German media dubbing it the biggest art heist in modern history.
However, the director of Dresden's state art collection, Marion Ackermann, had refused to put a value on the stolen items, calling them "priceless".
The stunt also caused around a million euros' worth of damage to the museum and car park.
Police combed through CCTV footage to identify the suspects, who are all members of the so-called "Remmo clan", an extended family notorious for ties to organised crime in Germany.
The investigation was codenamed "Epaulette" after the glittering shoulderpiece.
Three of the suspects were arrested after 1,600 police raided 18 Berlin properties in November 2020.
Another two -- twin brothers named by police as Mohammed and Abdul Majed Remmo -- were on the run for several months, but were caught in December 2020 and May 2021 respectively.
A final suspect was arrested last summer.
- Gold coin -
The Remmos were previously implicated in another stunning museum robbery in the heart of Berlin in 2017, when a 100-kilogramme (220-pound) gold coin was stolen.
Two of the suspects on trial for the Dresden heist are still serving out juvenile sentences for involvement in the theft of the gold coin -- which has also never been found.
The "Big Maple Leaf", considered the world's second-largest gold coin after the one-tonne Australian Kangaroo, was snatched from Berlin's prestigious Bode Museum.
Investigators in 2020 targeted the Remmo family with the seizure of 77 properties worth a total of 9.3 million euros, charging that they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including a 2014 bank robbery.
The Dresden trial, which is expected to run until October, is being heard in a juvenile court because two of the suspects were minors at the time of the crime.
In addition to the six main suspects, four other men are being investigated on suspicion of aiding and abetting by scoping out the crime scene the previous day.
Founded by Augustus, Elector of Saxony, in 1723, the Green Vault is one of Europe's oldest museums.
After the Royal Palace suffered severe damage in World War Two, the museum remained closed for decades before it was restored and reopened in 2006.
Experts have warned that the chances of recovering the stolen jewels are slim, with the precious stones likely re-cut in the time that has lapsed since the crime.
bur-fec/dlc/bp
Sebastian Kahnert
Femke COLBORNE
Thu, January 27, 2022
Six members of a notorious criminal gang go on trial in Germany on Friday over a spectacular heist in which 18th-century jewels were snatched from a state museum in Dresden.
The suspects, aged 22 to 28, are accused of gang robbery and arson after the brazen night raid on the Green Vault museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on November 25, 2019.
To this day, there is still no trace of the jewels, including a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond.
While charging the men last year, prosecutors described the museum pieces as "extremely important in terms of art and cultural history".
The robbers took just eight minutes, cutting the power and breaking in through a window with which they had previously tampered.
Two men armed with an axe then stormed into the showroom and stole the jewels before fleeing in a car, which they torched in an underground car park.
The thieves grabbed 21 pieces of jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong, encrusted with more than 4,300 individual diamonds.
- Operation Epaulette -
Insurance experts say the loot is worth at least 113.8 million euros ($128 million), with German media dubbing it the biggest art heist in modern history.
However, the director of Dresden's state art collection, Marion Ackermann, had refused to put a value on the stolen items, calling them "priceless".
The stunt also caused around a million euros' worth of damage to the museum and car park.
Police combed through CCTV footage to identify the suspects, who are all members of the so-called "Remmo clan", an extended family notorious for ties to organised crime in Germany.
The investigation was codenamed "Epaulette" after the glittering shoulderpiece.
Three of the suspects were arrested after 1,600 police raided 18 Berlin properties in November 2020.
Another two -- twin brothers named by police as Mohammed and Abdul Majed Remmo -- were on the run for several months, but were caught in December 2020 and May 2021 respectively.
A final suspect was arrested last summer.
- Gold coin -
The Remmos were previously implicated in another stunning museum robbery in the heart of Berlin in 2017, when a 100-kilogramme (220-pound) gold coin was stolen.
Two of the suspects on trial for the Dresden heist are still serving out juvenile sentences for involvement in the theft of the gold coin -- which has also never been found.
The "Big Maple Leaf", considered the world's second-largest gold coin after the one-tonne Australian Kangaroo, was snatched from Berlin's prestigious Bode Museum.
Investigators in 2020 targeted the Remmo family with the seizure of 77 properties worth a total of 9.3 million euros, charging that they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including a 2014 bank robbery.
The Dresden trial, which is expected to run until October, is being heard in a juvenile court because two of the suspects were minors at the time of the crime.
In addition to the six main suspects, four other men are being investigated on suspicion of aiding and abetting by scoping out the crime scene the previous day.
Founded by Augustus, Elector of Saxony, in 1723, the Green Vault is one of Europe's oldest museums.
After the Royal Palace suffered severe damage in World War Two, the museum remained closed for decades before it was restored and reopened in 2006.
Experts have warned that the chances of recovering the stolen jewels are slim, with the precious stones likely re-cut in the time that has lapsed since the crime.
bur-fec/dlc/bp
CTHULHU STUDIES
New scientific paper claims octopuses are actually aliens from outer space
Joshua Hawkins
Wed, January 26, 2022
Octopuses are from space. I know, that sounds like the opening line of a cheesy science fiction movie from the black and white days of Hollywood. But it’s actually the main part of the argument behind a research paper published in an actual peer-reviewed journal. The paper was published in the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. Titled Cause of the Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?, the paper digs deep into the origin of life on Earth.
As a result, it posits that life began thanks to a rain of retroviruses, which literally fell from space. Those retroviruses then added new DNA sequences to terrestrial genomes, which the paper says further drove mutagenic change.
Paper claims octopuses are from space
wunderpus
Where things start to get really interesting, though, is when the paper starts to discuss the arrival of cephalopods. The paper itself claims that certain cephalopods like octopuses, squid, and others arrived on the planet by falling from space, frozen in a kind of stasis.
“Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted,” the paper reads. The authors of the paper say that the octopus and other creatures benefit from biological features that appear to have been derived from “some type of pre-existence.”
The idea that life originated beyond Earth isn’t exactly a new one. As Stephen Fleischfresser points out in a post about the paper from 2018, the theory of panspermia has been around since Ancient Greece. However, this is perhaps one of the first times that we’ve seen scientists claiming that octopuses are from space.
Raising eyebrows
An octopus on the sea floor
It is, honestly, an exciting idea, that octopuses are from space. After all, there’s still a lot that we don’t know about the origin of life. Or even whether life exists beyond our own planet. Sure, we’re slowly discovering more about the universe. But this paper fails to put itself above any of the other theories we have out there.
Keith Baverstock, a medical researcher with the University of Eastern Finland, reviewed the paper. In his review, Baverstock stated that there is indeed a lot of evidence that makes the thesis plausible. However, he said that this isn’t how science advances. Because so much of the evidence is not definitive, this thesis only adds to the mystery surrounding the origin of life. In fact, nothing in the paper’s summary really helps us better understand the history of life on our planet. It only adds more conjectures to the already overflowing pot of theories that science has birthed over the years. (via ScienceAlert)
Still, there’s something interesting about the possibility that octopuses are from space. Sure, it might sound crazy, but the authors of this paper have presented a lot of interesting evidence for other scientists to mull over. Of course, it’s going to take a lot to actually prove it, too. And, singling out one specific group of animals could be making the focus far too narrow to actually prove anything. For now, all we can do is look back at the paper and watch to see what other evidence these scientists might bring forward in the future.
See the original version of this article on BGR.com
New scientific paper claims octopuses are actually aliens from outer space
Joshua Hawkins
Wed, January 26, 2022
Octopuses are from space. I know, that sounds like the opening line of a cheesy science fiction movie from the black and white days of Hollywood. But it’s actually the main part of the argument behind a research paper published in an actual peer-reviewed journal. The paper was published in the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. Titled Cause of the Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?, the paper digs deep into the origin of life on Earth.
As a result, it posits that life began thanks to a rain of retroviruses, which literally fell from space. Those retroviruses then added new DNA sequences to terrestrial genomes, which the paper says further drove mutagenic change.
Paper claims octopuses are from space
wunderpus
Where things start to get really interesting, though, is when the paper starts to discuss the arrival of cephalopods. The paper itself claims that certain cephalopods like octopuses, squid, and others arrived on the planet by falling from space, frozen in a kind of stasis.
“Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted,” the paper reads. The authors of the paper say that the octopus and other creatures benefit from biological features that appear to have been derived from “some type of pre-existence.”
The idea that life originated beyond Earth isn’t exactly a new one. As Stephen Fleischfresser points out in a post about the paper from 2018, the theory of panspermia has been around since Ancient Greece. However, this is perhaps one of the first times that we’ve seen scientists claiming that octopuses are from space.
Raising eyebrows
An octopus on the sea floor
It is, honestly, an exciting idea, that octopuses are from space. After all, there’s still a lot that we don’t know about the origin of life. Or even whether life exists beyond our own planet. Sure, we’re slowly discovering more about the universe. But this paper fails to put itself above any of the other theories we have out there.
Keith Baverstock, a medical researcher with the University of Eastern Finland, reviewed the paper. In his review, Baverstock stated that there is indeed a lot of evidence that makes the thesis plausible. However, he said that this isn’t how science advances. Because so much of the evidence is not definitive, this thesis only adds to the mystery surrounding the origin of life. In fact, nothing in the paper’s summary really helps us better understand the history of life on our planet. It only adds more conjectures to the already overflowing pot of theories that science has birthed over the years. (via ScienceAlert)
Still, there’s something interesting about the possibility that octopuses are from space. Sure, it might sound crazy, but the authors of this paper have presented a lot of interesting evidence for other scientists to mull over. Of course, it’s going to take a lot to actually prove it, too. And, singling out one specific group of animals could be making the focus far too narrow to actually prove anything. For now, all we can do is look back at the paper and watch to see what other evidence these scientists might bring forward in the future.
See the original version of this article on BGR.com
Australia pumps cash into Great Barrier Reef protection
Australia pumps cash into Great Barrier Reef protectionA recent study found bleaching had affected 98 percent of the Great Barrier Reef since 1998, leaving just a fraction of the world's largest reef system untouched
Australia pumps cash into Great Barrier Reef protectionA recent study found bleaching had affected 98 percent of the Great Barrier Reef since 1998, leaving just a fraction of the world's largest reef system untouched
(AFP/Scott Ling)
Thu, January 27, 2022
Australia unveiled a billion-dollar package to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef on Friday, hoping to prevent the vast network of corals from being removed from UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Conservative prime minister Scott Morrison announced the Aus$1 billion (US$700 million) nine-year plan, months after narrowly avoiding the reef being placed on UNESCO's "in danger" list.
"We are backing the health of the reef and the economic future of tourism operators, hospitality providers and Queensland communities that are at the heart of the reef economy," Morrison said.
The move comes ahead of a general election expected in May, when Morrison will have to win key Queensland seats near the reef to remain in power.
When the UN previously threatened to downgrade the reef's World Heritage listing in 2015, Australia created a "Reef 2050" plan and poured billions of dollars into protection.
The measures are believed to have arrested the pace of decline, but much of the world's largest reef system has already been damaged.
A recent study found bleaching had affected 98 percent of the reef since 1998, leaving just a fraction of it untouched.
The Morrison government's support for coal and reluctance to tackle climate change has seen the party bleed support in major cities and prompted the emergence of a string of electoral challenges from climate-focused independents.
Australians are overwhelmingly in favour of action to limit climate change, having experienced a string of global warming-worsened disasters such as bushfires, droughts and floods.
A 2021 poll by Sydney's Lowy Institute found 60 percent of Australians believed "global warming is a serious and pressing problem".
Eight in 10 Australians supported a net-zero emissions target by 2050, which the government reluctantly adopted ahead of a landmark United Nations climate summit in Scotland last year.
One of the world's biggest exporters of coal and gas, Australia's economy is heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Its political parties also receive significant funds from coal and gas-linked donors.
- 'Band-Aid on a broken leg' -
The Climate Council pressure group said this latest package of funding was like putting "a Band-Aid on a broken leg".
"Unless you are cutting emissions deeply this decade the situation on the reef will only get worse," said the Council's Lesley Hughes, a professor of biology at Macquarie University.
"Handing out cash for the Great Barrier Reef with one hand, while funding the very industry -- fossil fuels -- that's driving devastating climate impacts like marine heatwaves and coral bleaching, means they are adding to the very problem they are claiming they want to fix."
Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by spikes in ocean temperatures, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues, which drains them of their vibrant colours.
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered three mass bleaching events during heatwaves in 2016, 2017 and 2020, leaving many affected corals struggling to survive.
Much of the government's latest package will be spent on preventing damaging agricultural runoff from polluting the reef.
About a quarter of the funds will be channelled to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority "to reduce threats from Crown of Thorns Starfish", which eat coral.
arb/dva
Thu, January 27, 2022
Australia unveiled a billion-dollar package to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef on Friday, hoping to prevent the vast network of corals from being removed from UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Conservative prime minister Scott Morrison announced the Aus$1 billion (US$700 million) nine-year plan, months after narrowly avoiding the reef being placed on UNESCO's "in danger" list.
"We are backing the health of the reef and the economic future of tourism operators, hospitality providers and Queensland communities that are at the heart of the reef economy," Morrison said.
The move comes ahead of a general election expected in May, when Morrison will have to win key Queensland seats near the reef to remain in power.
When the UN previously threatened to downgrade the reef's World Heritage listing in 2015, Australia created a "Reef 2050" plan and poured billions of dollars into protection.
The measures are believed to have arrested the pace of decline, but much of the world's largest reef system has already been damaged.
A recent study found bleaching had affected 98 percent of the reef since 1998, leaving just a fraction of it untouched.
The Morrison government's support for coal and reluctance to tackle climate change has seen the party bleed support in major cities and prompted the emergence of a string of electoral challenges from climate-focused independents.
Australians are overwhelmingly in favour of action to limit climate change, having experienced a string of global warming-worsened disasters such as bushfires, droughts and floods.
A 2021 poll by Sydney's Lowy Institute found 60 percent of Australians believed "global warming is a serious and pressing problem".
Eight in 10 Australians supported a net-zero emissions target by 2050, which the government reluctantly adopted ahead of a landmark United Nations climate summit in Scotland last year.
One of the world's biggest exporters of coal and gas, Australia's economy is heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Its political parties also receive significant funds from coal and gas-linked donors.
- 'Band-Aid on a broken leg' -
The Climate Council pressure group said this latest package of funding was like putting "a Band-Aid on a broken leg".
"Unless you are cutting emissions deeply this decade the situation on the reef will only get worse," said the Council's Lesley Hughes, a professor of biology at Macquarie University.
"Handing out cash for the Great Barrier Reef with one hand, while funding the very industry -- fossil fuels -- that's driving devastating climate impacts like marine heatwaves and coral bleaching, means they are adding to the very problem they are claiming they want to fix."
Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by spikes in ocean temperatures, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues, which drains them of their vibrant colours.
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered three mass bleaching events during heatwaves in 2016, 2017 and 2020, leaving many affected corals struggling to survive.
Much of the government's latest package will be spent on preventing damaging agricultural runoff from polluting the reef.
About a quarter of the funds will be channelled to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority "to reduce threats from Crown of Thorns Starfish", which eat coral.
arb/dva
EDMONTON ARTIST
Here's why Todd McFarlane's 'The Scorched,' his first team comic in decades, is a huge hitMike Avila
Thu, January 27, 2022
Todd McFarlane has done almost everything a cartoonist could hope to do in the comic book business. He's drawn the biggest characters at Marvel and DC (Spider-Man and Batman), set sales records (Spider-Man #1, Spawn #1), and helped change the industry with the creator-owned company Image Comics.
One thing the iconic artist hadn't done since the start of his career was tackle a monthly superhero book. Until now.
Scorched 1 Cover D Todd Mcfarlane
Photo: Todd McFarlane courtesy of Image Comics/Todd McFarlane Productions
The Scorched, which just debuted with a first issue that 270,000 copies — the biggest debut for a team comic from any publisher in the past 30 years — marks McFarlane's first foray into an ongoing team book since Infinity, Inc. for DC Comics in the 80s. That title, starring the offspring of the Justice Society of America, marked McFarlane's first significant work in the business. But it also happened to be what scared him off team books until now.
"I remember when I was done with Infinity, Inc. I just said to myself, 'I'll never do another team book,'" McFarlane recalls during a Zoom interview with SYFY WIRE. "And the reason was, is I felt like when I was doing it, that I was doing a lot of, like, little headshots just to get everybody in. You couldn't sort of pull the camera back too often and just sort of focus on a character here and there. Everybody had to sort of get equal billing and everybody had to have five lines. And then when I went to do a regular book like Hulk, and then after that, Spider-Man, I saw at least for me, the joy of drawing was when you could just sort of focus on one character and make it your own and not have to feel like you had to keep cutting away from them."
"People who can do team books," he continues. "I have this huge jealousy and admiration for because I... I think I can usually do anything, but [team books] is one of the things that I just go, "No, I don't have it in me."
Having interviewed the man countless times over the years, on and off camera, I can say with certainty that McFarlane is never lacking in confidence. So hearing him admit to a certain degree of insecurity about anything to do with comics was surprising. To that end, it may explain why he hedged his bets with the fourth pillar of his shared universe master plan by bringing in writer Sean Lewis to helm the scripting. Lewis is co-creator of Image books like Saints, The Few, as well as the writer on King Spawn. Artists Stephen Segovia and Paulo Sequeria round out the team, along with colorists Ulises Arreola and Nikos Koutsis and letterer Andworld Design. McFarlane says his role is to big-picture the series and helping set the scene for the stories the creative team tells.
"I want to make sure that when I'm dealing with a writer — and Sean's obviously super talented — I give him as much leeway to drive as possible. I sort of say, 'Let me download you with 30 years of Spawn mythology, because you're probably not up to speed on 90 percent of it,'" McFarlane says. "Now with all that information, what can you build upon and what gaps can you fill in? Because there's a ton of gaps [in the Spawn mythos]. I don't have all the answers. I defined some things, but not all of it, even simple questions, like where does the clown [Violator] go at night? Nobody's ever wrote that story, myself included. I want to give all that freedom there. And I want it to feel like there's a reason why these people are coming together."
E - King Spawn 1 Capullo McFarlane COVER
Credit: Todd McFarlane / Todd McFarlane Productions
The, ahem... scorching hot debut of the latest expansion block of the Spawn Universe has allowed McFarlane to notch another record. The Year of Spawn was supposed to be 2021, when a trio of number one issues, Spawn's Universe, King Spawn, and Gunslinger Spawn all debuted to blockbuster sales numbers. But now with the stellar opening sales figures for The Scorched, McFarlane seems to have accomplished his goal of launching his own expanded comics universe. Just as important, he's done it by not just relying on the MVP of the whole shebang. While Spawn (Al Simmons) is obviously a key part of the overall strategy — he has two ongoing books of his own — the original Spawn takes a back seat in the new team comic to She-Spawn, Redeemer, Gunslinger, and Medieval Spawn. That is strictly by design, according to McFarlane, who used another popular superhero team comic as an example of the type of dynamic he wants for his new title.
"So just like when you have Batman in the JLA, it doesn't mean that everything has to be taken place in an alleyway or on top of a building at night. He's just part of the group," he says. "So is Spawn. And so every [character] in this book should be equally uncomfortable that they're out of their comfort zone."
Part of the conflict in the new supernatural team will come from two of its alpha members, Spawn and Gunslinger Spawn. "It's always gonna be trouble whenever you've got two people playing and want to be the starting quarterback," McFarlane says. "Usually everybody seems to sort of have their spots predefined from a character point of view. I'm the strong man, I'm the fast man, you know, the thinker or whatever. So we're going to get into a little bit of a conflict with Al Simmons and Gunslinger because they're both a bit of the same [type] of character."
Scorched 1 04
Photo: Stephen Segovia and Paulo Sequeria courtesy of Image Comics/Todd McFarlane Productions
He also hints that the lineup that we see in the first issue of the book will not be the same in the near future. "Some of them are going to leave and we're going to rotate them," he says. "And while they're here, like a family reunion or something like that, you don't have to like everybody in the family. I'm not saying you have to love 'em and I'm not saying you have to hate 'em."
It is rare a conversation with McFarlane doesn't somehow veer off into sports. And predictably, he views team sports as being analogous to superhero teams. "There should be two components to being on a team. Number one, when it's game time you play as a single team, right? That's rule number one of any sort of competitive sports. You put all personalities to the side when it's game time, and then after the game's over, then you decide who you're gonna go have a drink with at the bar, or have a picnic with, or a barbecue. I think all of that is completely doable and essentially it's part of the makeup of any good team book."
When McFarlane was just a comics fan, he was often drawn to superhero titles. In the SYFY WIRE documentary Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won't, he talked about the impact John Byrne had on his future career plans. That's because Byrne was penciler and co-plotter on X-Men as it was becoming Marvel's top team comic. But that wasn't the only one he enjoyed. "Obviously X-Men was sort of the top of most everybody's list, right? But also The Avengers was always the coolest, especially when George Perez was drawing it," he notes. "I always quite enjoyed The Fantastic Four, too. There was always that fun relationship between Johnny and Ben Grimm. On the DC side, I don't really remember being smitten by the JLA per se. But I was a fan of the Legion of Superheroes, especially when Keith Giffin was doing it."
Before our talk ended, McFarlane shared his thoughts on the man widely thought to be the ultimate superhero team artist, George Perez. The iconic artist, who revealed in December he was suffering from stage 3 pancreatic cancer, has been on the minds of countless comics fans and creators. "Some of the levels that George hit artistically and put on paper, it's hard for me to imagine that I'm gonna see that ever again," he says. "I mean, it's a staggering thing that he was doing and... Greg Capullo did a little bit with Dark Night: Metals, but George was doing it on a sustained level for years. Ask Greg Capullo how long he could keep Metals up for."
"George just seemed to be able to just do it on a monthly basis. And look, there are just certain things that have to be done to get books out. And some of them are just Herculean and once you've tried it, you know how big the effort is. And what George has done in his career is amazing," McFarlane says. "George was bouncing between multiple books. He did the Teen Titans and Avengers and FF, and then the Crisis on Infinite Earths books and the JLA... he was all over. He painted both companies with his stroke. And it's hard for me to imagine anybody that can even hold a candle to that in the next 10 years, maybe ever. Especially given that we all want to sort of pencil link our own stuff and whatever else. His legacy is... it's going to be hard to have anybody come along and come close to that."
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