AOC: Capitalism 'is the absolute pursuit of profit' at all costs

Erin Fuchs
·Deputy Managing Editor
Thu, 3 February 2022

In his annual letter to CEOs this year, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink urged other chief executives to harness the "power of capitalism" to influence society and serve as a catalyst for positive change.

Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, has a very different view on the nature of capitalism. In a new interview with Yahoo Finance taped on Jan. 27, Ocasio-Cortez suggested that people often have different definitions of terms like socialism or capitalism.

"When we toss out these big words, capitalism, socialism, they get ... sensationalized, and people translate them into meaning things that perhaps they don't mean," she told Yahoo Finance's editor-in-chief, Andy Serwer. "So to me, capitalism, at its core, what we're talking about when we talk about that is the absolute pursuit of profit at all human, environmental, and social cost."

Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as AOC, has attacked this notion of capitalism frequently since she beat longtime incumbent Joseph Crowley, the No. 4 House Democrat, in 2018 to represent a New York district covering parts of the Bronx and Queens. She is one of four democratic socialists in Congress, along with Cori Bush of Missouri, fellow New Yorker Jamaal Bowman, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

The Democratic Socialists of America defines this system as "one where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society." For her part, Ocasio-Cortez envisions a "more just economy" as one where workers have more power — as they do in unionized workplaces or in worker cooperatives that workers collectively own and operate.

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 03: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) (L) stands with Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) during a news conference on the eviction moratorium at the Capitol on August 03, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

"You know, we're here in the Bronx," she said during her interview with Yahoo Finance, which was filmed in that borough. "I represent a community that has the largest concentration of worker cooperatives in ... one of the largest concentrations in the world."

One worker cooperative in the Bronx, an employee-owned home care agency called Cooperative Home Care Associates, describes itself as the largest worker cooperative in the U.S., employing roughly 2,000 Black and Latinx workers.

"Now these are alternative ways of doing business," Ocasio-Cortez told Yahoo Finance. "Free markets are not the same thing as capitalism."

AOC has pointed to her own online store — which sells merchandise like "Tax the Rich" T-shirts — as a different way of doing business. When former White House press secretary Sean Spicer accused her of "using capitalism to push socialism" in a tweet, she tweeted back the same definition of capitalism that she used with Yahoo Finance.

VIDEO: AOC: Capitalism 'is the absolute pursuit of profit' at all costs 

"Not sure if you know this Sean, but transactions aren't capitalism," she wrote. "...but fwiw, our shop is unionized, doesn't operate for profit, & funds projects like free tutoring, food programs, & local organizing."

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Ocasio-Cortez described American billionaires as the epitome of capitalism.

"What we're also discussing is the ability for a very small group of actual capitalists, and that is, people who have so much money that their money makes money, and they don't have to work," she said. "They can control industry, they can control our energy sources, they can control our labor ...They can essentially have power over the many. And to me, that is not a redeemable system."

Erin Fuchs is deputy managing editor at Yahoo Finance.

AOC: Facebook ‘sabotaged’ the global COVID response with disinformation

Max Zahn with Andy Serwer

Thu, 3 February 2022, 

Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive interview that Facebook (FB) and other U.S. companies have "sabotaged" the global response to COVID-19 by spreading disinformation about the virus.

The tech giant, which recently changed its name to Meta, should "be broken up" because it exploits its overlapping lines of business as a platform, vendor, and advertiser, Ocasio-Cortez added in the wide-ranging remarks.

"There are some things that the United States provides that are welcome," she says.

"There are also things that we want the United States to stop exporting and one of those things is disinformation — disinformation through U.S.-founded companies like Facebook that have absolutely slowed and frankly sabotaged the global effort to fight against the coronavirus," she adds.

The comments from Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke to Yahoo Finance's editor-in-chief, Andy Serwer, on Jan. 27, came nearly a month after Facebook suspended House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for 24 hours for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Facebook imposed the suspension a day after Twitter banned Greene permanently.

Facebook has drawn criticism throughout the pandemic for what some perceive as an inadequate effort to prevent the spread of false information about the virus. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Joe Biden set off a public back-and-forth with Facebook last July when he asserted that social media platforms are "killing people" through the spread of vaccine misinformation.

In response, Facebook VP Guy Rosen refuted the accusation, arguing in a blog post that vaccine acceptance among Facebook users had increased since the previous January and advocating instead for a "whole of society" approach to ending the pandemic.

In later comments on the subject, Biden softened his criticism by directing his ire toward the top influencers who spread vaccine misinformation on social media, rather than the platforms themselves.

But documents later disclosed by whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed that the company had gathered deep information about the spread of coronavirus misinformation on its platform, which the company did not share publicly, the Washington Post reported in October.

Facebook spokesperson Aaron Simpson provided this statement to the Post: “There’s no silver bullet to fighting misinformation, which is why we take a comprehensive approach which includes removing more than 20 million pieces of content that break our covid misinformation policies … connecting more than 2 billion people to reliable information about covid-19 and vaccines, and partnering with independent fact-checkers."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listens during a House Financial Services Committee hearing with leaders of major banks, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Only 12 people are responsible for up to 73% of anti-vaccine misinformation on Facebook, according to a report released in March 2021 by advocacy group Center for Countering Digital Hate.

Joseph Mercola, a top anti-vaccine influencer with 1.7 million followers on the platform, frequently posts messages skeptical of vaccines and uses his Facebook page to promote his anti-vaccine book "The Truth About COVID-19."

Ocasio-Cortez rose to prominence in June 2018 with a surprise upset of incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley, then the No. 4 Democrat in the House and a potential successor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. When she took office the following year at the age of 29, she became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

She has amassed nearly 13 million Twitter followers, giving her one of the largest online platforms of a U.S. elected official.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Ocasio-Cortez reiterated her longstanding call for antitrust action against Facebook. Last month, a judge rejected Facebook's request to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission that claims the company is operating a monopoly in the social media sector.

"Facebook should be broken up," Ocasio-Cortez says. "They're an advertiser. They are acting as both platform and vendor. They are a communication platform, which has historically been a well established domain of antitrust."

"Because they are so many businesses and industries in one," she adds. "The case [is] right there in and of itself as to why they should be subject to antitrust activity."

Read more:

• What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants in the next Supreme Court nominee

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

NFTs suffer 'some' money laundering, manipulative flows that inflate prices

David Hollerith

·Senior Reporter

Thu, 3 February 2022, 

Non-fungible tokens have seen a "significant" rise manipulative practices that exaggerate prices, liquidity and launder money, according to new data — a growing fear as the sector turns increasingly volatile.

A report released Wednesday from blockchain analytics platform, Chainalysis, found “significant wash trading and some money laundering" does occur, with at least part of those questionable flows running through ultra-hot NFTs, a sub-sector of the growing cryptocurrency market.

Chainalysis data comes as Open Sea, the largest marketplace for buying and selling NFTs, had its best month yet in January with $4.9 billion in transaction volume, raising at least a few questions regarding exactly how much of the overall market is legitimate.

Many observers of the crypto market have been quick to suggest and even point out that the market is plagued by price manipulative practices such as wash trading, a practice in which traders take both sides of a sale to inflate its value.

Wash trading and money laundering are proving “extremely easy to trace on the blockchain” according to the firm’s director of research, Kim Grauer.

A surge in NFT transactions, mirroring the rise of cryptocurrency's popularity

Wash trading often boosts an asset's demand and underlying price, and is being increasingly cited in some NFT transactions. The practice can be pervasive in the crypto markets, which involve wallet addresses that can be created pseudonymously for free, with little effort.

While wash trading is illegal for conventional securities and futures instruments, it's not been actively enforced within the budding NFT movement. Sometimes, it is literally programmed into a platform's reward model.

Last month, Decrypt reported that a newer Ethereum (ETH-USD)-based NFT platform, LooksRare, saw a massive upswing in trading volume thanks to wash trading. That included a Meebits NFT sold for a jaw-dropping $100 million worth of trading volume in just two transactions.

Yet the data presented by Chainalysis shows that the practice is sometimes not even worth the effort.

“We found that by and large, [wash trading] really is not an attractive thing to do in the NFT space,” Grauer told Yahoo Finance.

Apart from how easily was trading can be traced, Grauer pointed to the high transaction costs (i.e. Ethereum gas fees) for trading NFTs.

Looking at a sample of buyers and sellers across multiple NFT marketplaces, the study tracked the profitability of 252 traders who they assumed with a high degree of confidence could be classified as habitual wash traders.

Each of these traders conducted NFT transactions at least 25 times between self-financing wallet addresses, meaning those funded by the sellers address or the address that funded the selling address. Of those habitual washers, the study found that only 110 profited, while the other 152 lost money. However, profitable wash traders still made out very well.

According to the report, the 110 profitable wash traders collectively made nearly $8.9 million, which dwarfed the $416,984 in losses made by the other 152 habitual wash traders.

“We don’t see wash trading as an effective or reliable way for criminals to make money because of both the cost spent on gas, the traceability, and the risk of no payout unless someone takes the bait,” Grauer added.

As Yahoo Finance has previously reported, money laundering in crypto assets is far easier to track than in government issued fiat currencies. The study found that the value in cryptocurrencies sent to NFT marketplaces from illicit wallet addresses reached $1.4 million in 2021.

Crime will likely rise as more investors show interest in NFTs. However, those sums are relatively small: Chainalysis previously found that $8.6 billion of illicit funds were laundered in on a total $44.2 billion worth of money that went to NFT marketplaces during the same period.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M INSIDER TRADING

'Too many members of the Senate trade in stocks,' Senate Banking Committee chair says

Adriana Belmonte
·Senior Editor
Sat, 5 February 2022

The push for stricter regulation related to members of Congress trading individual stocks has been picking up momentum in 2022.

There are currently at least half a dozen bills that have been proposed in recent months to address the issue, which one senator said has gotten out of hand.

“Too many members of the Senate trade in stocks, and their spouses do,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “I don’t accuse anybody individually of a conflict of interest and in betraying the public interest. But the temptation — if you own shares of stock, everything looks like a conflict of interest because we vote on everything in the Senate. We vote on banking rules. We vote on environmental rules. We vote on labor rules. We vote on minimum wages sometimes, so there are all kinds of conflicts.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown speaks during a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing on January 13, 2022. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Under the STOCK Act of 2012, lawmakers are required to report their stock trades within 45 days of the transactions. However, a report by Insider found that 54 members of Congress have failed to properly report their transactions.

“We need to write the strongest bill that we can get a majority of senators on,” Brown said. “It will be a challenge because a number of senators, especially Republicans, have complained about this. And there are a lot of people in the Senate that hold a lot of investments, and I’m concerned.”
'You're here for public service'

Several senators have come under scrutiny for insider trading practices since the pandemic first hit the U.S. In March 2020, the Justice Department announced that it would be investigating some senators to determine whether they traded ahead of the stock market crash triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

An investigation by ProPublica and The Center for Responsive Politics revealed that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time and received confidential briefings about the emerging threat of the coronavirus pandemic, and his wife sold numerous stock shares following those briefings.

Burr denied the allegations, and the Department of Justice ended its inquiry into his trading actions in January 2021, though the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) is reportedly still investigating.

Senator Richard Burr delivers opening remarks during a Senate Health Committee hearing to examine the federal response to COVID, January 11, 2022. Shawn Thew/Pool via REUTERS

Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who was a member of the Senate Health Committee, reportedly sold stock on January 24, 2020, which was the same day the committee was briefed by administration officials on the coronavirus.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) were also scrutinized for their stock moves.

“You’re here for public service, not here to enrich your portfolio,” Brown said. “If you want to make more money, stay out of it. Don’t run for the Senate. Do something else. We have a public trust here.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been a vocal opponent of banning members of Congress from participating in the stock market. Her husband, Paul, is an active stock trader, according to reports.

"We are a free-market economy,” she said during a press conference in December, adding that lawmakers “should be able to participate in that."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi arrives with her husband Paul Pelosi during the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States in Washington DC on January 20, 2021. (Photo by JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Twenty seven lawmakers recently wrote a letter urging House leaders to act quickly to bring "commonsense, bipartisan" legislation to the floor banning members of Congress from owning or trading stocks.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) detailed the fundamental issue as she sees it.

"I am a member of Congress: Members of Congress have access to very sensitive security clearances," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We have access to very detailed, tailored briefs. We, our job is to try to anticipate and legislate for what we see is coming. And we should not have the ability to both have access to that information and be able to hold and trade individual stock."
'They were doing stock trading'

Members of Congress from both political parties have proposed legislation to limit stock trading among their colleagues.

A proposal from Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) would prohibit members of Congress and their immediate family members from conducting any stock transactions while serving in office and confiscate the lawmaker’s entire salary if they break the rules. U.S. Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Chip Roy (R-TX) unveiled a similar proposal to be passed in the House.

Sen. Jon Ossoff questions Treasury Secretary Yellen and Fed Chairman Powell during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the CARES Act September 28, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/REUTERS

Republican Senator Josh Hawley has also proposed a bill that would prohibit lawmakers and their spouses from owning or trading individual stocks.

Amid these discussions, however, Brown stressed: “Don’t forget about the Federal Reserve.”

Last October, Brown co-sponsored a bill — the Ban Conflicted Trading at the Fed Act — that would prohibit officials at the Federal Reserve from trading individual stocks. This came as a result of ethics concerns surrounding stock trades made by former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, who both left their roles after scrutiny increased on the Fed.

“We know about some compromise, if you will,” Brown said. “We’ve had Fed presidents around the country — a couple resigned probably because of this. They were doing stock trading.”

In January, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida resigned earlier than initially planned after it was revealed that he had failed to properly disclose his trading activities in 2020, raising the question of whether or not he benefited from Fed actions.

Brown said he would be meeting with fellow lawmakers to “get something significant through the Senate.”

“It won’t be exactly the bill the way that I introduce it or Senator Ossoff or Senator Merkley,” he said. “But we need to move and we need to include the Federal Reserve in it. We need to include — not all family members, not grown children — but we need to include spouses in these rules.”

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com

AOC: 'No mystery' why it's hard to ban lawmaker stock trading

Erin Fuchs

·Deputy Managing Editor

Thu, 3 February 2022

Last week, 27 lawmakers wrote a letter urging leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives to act quickly to bring "commonsense, bipartisan" legislation to the floor banning members of Congress from owning or trading stocks.

That letter called lawmakers' stock trading a "glaring problem" that won't go away until Congress fixes it. While federal lawmakers have unveiled a range of bills aiming to stop lawmakers' from trading stocks, the legislation may face opposition from lawmakers engaged in the behavior it's trying to rein in.

In a new interview with Yahoo Finance taped on Jan. 27, progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) alluded to the difficulty of persuading members of Congress to police their own behavior.

"It's not really a mystery to me why it's difficult to pass," Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as AOC, told Yahoo Finance's editor-in-chief, Andy Serwer, in a wide-ranging interview. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was a majority of members of Congress who hold and trade individual stock."

The practice of so-called insider trading in Congress has faced widespread criticism in recent years because lawmakers have access to non-public information. Perhaps most notoriously, the Justice Department investigated four senators who sold significant amounts of stock in January and February 2020 as they were being briefed on the looming threat of COVID-19.

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) attends the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 9, 2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble

While those senators didn't face criminal charges, the investigation highlighted the reality that Congress often has access to inside information that could have a material effect on public companies.

"I am a member of Congress: Members of Congress have access to very sensitive security clearances," Ocasio-Cortez told Yahoo Finance. "We have access to very detailed, tailored briefs. We, our job is to try to anticipate and legislate for what we see is coming. And we should not have the ability to both have access to that information and be able to hold and trade individual stock."

While House members can trade stock freely, a 2012 law called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act bans them from trading on "material, nonpublic information" and requires them to disclose trades within 45 days. More than a few lawmakers have violated the STOCK Act, though: A recent investigation by Insider identified 54 lawmakers who failed to comply with the law's reporting requirements.

And in 2020, 75 federal lawmakers held stock in Moderna (MRNA), Pfizer (PFE), or Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) as Congress authorized billions to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines made by these very companies, Insider also reported.

One bill recently introduced to further curb insider trading in Congress would aim to strengthen the STOCK Act's disclosure rules. Meanwhile, a bill introduced last month by Democratic Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Jon Ossoff of Georgia would prohibit lawmakers and their immediate family members from owning or trading stocks.

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez favors banning trading altogether, though she stresses that wouldn't prevent Congress members from having a broader stake in the stock market. "The key here, is that it's not to say that you can't have a retirement account or a college savings account ... a blind trust ... a mutual fund, an index fund," she said. "These are vehicles of investments that are broad, that individual members of Congress don't have direct control over."

Erin Fuchs is deputy managing editor at Yahoo Finance.

BACK TO WHERE IT BEGAN

Suds in the sanctuary: breweries populate vacant US churches

KATHRYN POST
Fri, February 4, 2022



This photo provided by Adam Martinez shows inside The Lost Abbey in San Diego. The Lost Abbey brewing company opened a new location in December 2021 inside the shell of a Mexican Presbyterian church built in 1906. The brewery added pews, chandeliers, tapestries and even stained-glass windows to accentuate its slightly irreverent brand. (Courtesy of The Lost Abbey via AP)

(RNS) — Bruce Lindsay never expected to own a church. But when his mother died shortly before the pandemic, he wanted to use his inheritance to do something extraordinary.

“My mother, if she were alive today, I think would have a great chuckle at what I’ve purchased,” said Lindsay. “I found myself surrounded by a church when it was the last place on earth I wanted to go to as a kid.”

In August, after purchasing a 900-square-foot-Methodist church built in 1876, Lindsay and his business partner, Anna Cronin, opened Dirt Church Brewing Co. in East Haven, Vermont. It’s one of at least eight church breweries that have opened in the U.S. since 2020.

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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

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Today, the U.S. has roughly 30 breweries based in once-vacant churches. Though some church breweries have faced pushback for offering suds in a once sacred space, the move has precedent. Monks have been brewing beer in monasteries for centuries, offering it to visitors and often imbibing it themselves at a time when it was safer to drink beer than water.

Dirt Church Brewing Co. originally intended to open a brewery inside the church, but Cronin and Lindsay found it lacked running water, a septic tank and heat. Rather than tearing open the building to add the required services, they built the taproom next door, where the town’s former meetinghouse once stood. The church, now used as an art gallery and event space, remains integral to the brewery’s identity.

The name “dirt church” is both a nod to the 19th-century building as well as lingo used by the cycling community that Lindsay and Cronin belong to. “It’s kind of our little cheeky nickname for the Sunday morning long ride that was usually on mountain bikes or gravel bikes,” said Cronin. “Instead of going to ‘church-church,’ we would say, ‘Hey, are you going to dirt church?’”

Today, the brewery hosts “dirt church” for its patrons once a month via Sunday bike rides, runs or hikes — followed by a few celebratory beers at the taproom, of course.

Across the country in San Diego, The Lost Abbey brewing company opened a new location in December inside the shell of a Mexican Presbyterian church built in 1906. The brewery added pews, chandeliers, tapestries and even stained-glass windows to accentuate its slightly irreverent brand.

“This building fell into massive disrepair and probably would have been demolished were it not for the developers that saved it,” said Tomme Arthur, co-founder of The Lost Abbey. This is the brewery’s first location in a former house of worship.

The Lost Abbey was founded in 2006 to offer beers inspired by Belgian monastic brewing traditions, as well as some “nondenominational” beers brewed in no particular style. Per the company’s slogan, it offers brews to “sinners and saints alike” — a motto it’s embraced wholeheartedly.

The new location, appropriately dubbed “The Church,” is split into two sides, one for sinners and one for saints. The sections are marked by corresponding décor: A St. Peter statue presides over the saints area, and Mary Magdalene — who is often misidentified as a prostitute — occupies the sinners side.

The Lost Abbey’s beers play off of similar tropes, with “saintly” names such as “10 Commandments” or “Gift of the Magi” juxtaposed with names like “Judgment Day” or “Serpent’s Stout.” The next addition will be a beer featuring Baby Moses, a wink at the popular “Mandalorian” character Baby Yoda.

“We’ve always taken our beers more seriously than a lot of other things,” said Arthur, who grew up attending Catholic school. “What’s great is that every time that we need some sort of inspiration, we’re able to open up the Bible.”

The Ministry of Brewing, located in what was once St. Michael the Archangel Church in Baltimore, makes it a point to avoid religious themes in its marketing.

“All of our names of our beers are typically Baltimore references or something about the neighborhood,” said Jon Holley, the brewery’s general manager. “As far as religious terms, imagery, things like that, we already know that being in a church is a sensitive thing for a lot of people, so we’re not trying to touch that at all.”

The church was built in 1857 and was home to a German Catholic congregation and, later, a Spanish-speaking congregation before closing due to the cost of upkeep. In 2018, the Ministry of Brewing began a full renovation to preserve and restore many of the original elements of the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The church reopened to the public as a brewery in January 2020, featuring a dazzling interior with soaring columns and a mural-painted barrel ceiling. The brewery also hosts events, fundraisers and even local delegate debates.

Though Holley said he “half expected” pushback for residing in a historic church, the brewery has received overwhelming support. Most often, he said, patrons can be found enjoying the brewery’s bestselling hazy pale ale called “Wispy,” a reference to wispy stained glass.

Like the other two breweries, Dirt Church Brewing Co. in Vermont is intentional about its beer names. Its flagship beer? It’s named “Rejoice,” after Lindsay’s mother, Joyce.

“It’s our most popular beer,” said Lindsay. “Without my mother’s help, none of this would exist today.”

Record heat, forest fires in Colombia's Amazon in January

Fri, 4 February 2022,

The report said the month of January recorded the 'highest

 hot spot values in the last 10 years' in the Colombian Amazon 

(AFP/Luis ROBAYO) 

January of this year was the hottest month in the Colombian Amazon in a decade, leading to an increase in forest fires in the southeastern region and very likely impacting air quality in the capital Bogota, according to an Environment Ministry report seen by AFP Friday.

It said the month of January recorded the "highest hot spot values in the last 10 years" in the Colombian Amazon.

The phenomenon occurs, the ministry said, when the country goes through a season of low rainfall, and is due to human activity, of which "the most important is associated with deforestation fronts."

At least 80 percent of the "hot spots" were forest fires, a ministry spokesman told AFP. At the end of January, the ministry identified more than 3,300 "hot spots" in the six departments that make up the Colombian Amazon, including 1,300 in the Guaviare region alone.

According to testimony collected by AFP in October in the region, peasants and landowners take advantage of the dry season, from January to April, to burn or cut down trees and plant coca plants in their place, or to let cattle graze there.

The Serrania del Chiribiquete National Park, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is particularly threatened, as is the Nukak National Nature Reserve, a vast territory of jungle inhabited by the last nomadic indigenous people of Colombia.

The Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS), which keeps its own count and regularly flies over the areas concerned, recorded at least 938 forest fires, the highest monthly January figure since 2012.

"Thousands of hectares of Amazon jungle, cut in recent months, are on fire today. These massive fires are now being felt as far away as Bogota," FCDS director Rodrigo Botero warned on Twitter.

"There are public health decisions to be made quickly. What are the air indicators saying in Bogota?"

Bogota mayor Claudia Lopez decried "the inability" of the government "to control the territory and guarantee security."

She described the fires as "arson attacks ... which, due to the direction of the wind, end up arriving and deteriorating the quality of the air" in the capital, almost 500 km away.

In Medellin, the country's second most populous city, officials have warned of a deterioration in air quality to a level "harmful to the health" of children and the elderly.

According to data from the Colombian government, deforestation has exploded in recent years in the country's Amazonian regions, notably as a result of the historic peace deal signed in 2016 with the Marxist guerrillas of the FARC, which then abandoned large swaths of territory which they previously controlled.

das-jss-hba/jh/leg/je

A year after it vanished, famed 'Guernica' tapestry returns to UN

Sat, 5 February 2022

Then-US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley passes before the 'Guernica' tapestry at the UN on January 2, 2018 (AFP/Drew Angerer) (Drew Angerer)

One year after its sudden and disconcerting disappearance from a wall at the United Nations, a vast tapestry representing Picasso's iconic "Guernica" has been returned by owners the Rockefeller family to its prominent place at the global body.

The rehanging of the immense weaving was underway Saturday morning, a UN source said, as diplomats expressed relief about the return of the 25-foot-wide (7.5-meter) work which hung outside the Security Council chambers, where presidents, prime ministers and ambassadors would regularly pass.

The tapestry was commissioned by Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1955 and woven in a French studio in consultation with Picasso, who did his original "Guernica" painting during the Spanish Civil War. It represents the bombardment of the Spanish city of that name on April 26, 1937 by German Nazi and Italian fascist forces.

"The Guernica tapestry with its probing symbolism -– its depiction of horrific aspects of human nature -- wrestles with the cruelty, darkness, and also a seed of hope within humanity," Nelson Rockefeller Jr. said in a UN statement announcing the artwork's return.

"I am grateful that the tapestry will be able to continue to reach a broader segment of the world's population and magnify its ability to touch lives and educate."

On loan to the UN by the Rockefellers, it was meant to serve as a powerful reminder to UN diplomats of the horrors of war. Screaming women, a dead baby and a dismembered soldier are rendered in ominous shades of brown and black.

But in February 2021, as the Covid-19 crisis was sweeping the globe and thousands of UN employees were forced to work from home, the tapestry vanished without explanation.

"It's horrible, horrible, that it is gone," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, himself surprised by the sudden disappearance.

In a letter to the Rockefellers in December, Guterres welcomed the upcoming reinstallment at the UN.

"We are honored to serve as careful stewards of this one-of-a-kind iconic work -- as we draw inspiration from its message," he wrote, according to the UN statement.

In an interview published Saturday in The New York Times, Nelson Rockefeller Jr. acknowledged a "miscommunication" -- indicating that the tapestry had needed cleaning and preservation work.

"Guernica" is on loan to the UN with the provision that the family can reclaim it to be shown in exhibits in the United States or elsewhere for up to six months.

prh/bbk/mlm

ECOCIDE

Floating carpet of dead fish highlights France’s ‘lax’ attitude to overfishing

Sat, 5 February 2022,


Some 100,000 dead fish were thrown back into the sea off the French coast on Thursday by one of the world's largest fishing vessels. While the crew dismissed it as a "fishing accident", NGO Sea Shepherd denounced it as a "pillaging". It hopes that shocking images of the dead marine life will raise enough public awareness so that strong political decisions will be taken to combat overfishing.

From a distance, it looks like a long white streak of sea foam. At close range, the streak is comprised of the silvery bodies of some 100,000 dead fish, dumped back into the sea by Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world’s second-biggest fishing vessel. Macabre images of this carpet of dead fish went viral on social media when Sea Shepherd posted them on Thursday, as part of their Operation Ocean Killers in the Bay of Biscay on France's Atlantic coast.

Condemning the dumping as a “pillaging” of the sea, the NGO, which is dedicated to the protection of marine ecosystems, demanded answers from the French Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin. Girardin announced on Friday that she had asked for an administrative investigation to be opened into the incident.

The incident, which took place early on Thursday morning, was caused by a rupture in the trawler's net, said fishing industry group the European Pelagic Freezer-Trawlers Association (PFA), representing the owner of the Margiris. In a statement, PFA described it as an "accident" and a "very rare occurrence". Sea Shepherd disputes this version of events, saying it is far from rare and simply an illegal discharge of more than 100,000 unwanted fish. The NGO hopes that the images will help to raise awareness among French citizens of the disastrous consequences of overfishing.

"This ship is used to this kind of 'fishing accident'. It has already been involved in discarding of unwanted catches," said Lamya Essemlali, the chairperson of Sea Shepherd France, to FRANCE 24. "What's more, we've already filmed other ships that also release thousands of dead fish in their wake. It is therefore an 'accident' that keeps happening a lot on these ships," she said.

French fishermen ‘think that the ocean belongs to them’

The Sea Shepherd France team had watched the ship arrive in the Bay of Biscay, Essemlali said. "We spotted the Margiris arriving on MarineTraffic.com, so we left the port of La Rochelle on Wednesday evening and headed straight towards it.” Their aim was to film the fishing operation, "to show the general public what industrial fishing by giant trawlers looks like”.

Nicknamed "the monster" by British media, the 6,200-tonne, 143-metre long Margiris was already the subject of a massive outcry in Australia, where it was banned after NGOs mobilised public opinion.

In 2019, UK environmentalists mounted a protest against its presence in British waters. "They did not succeed in banning it, because the United Kingdom was still part of the European Union at the time and did not have the room for manoeuvre that Australia had," said Essemlali, referring to a common fisheries policy that holds decisions must be taken at the European level.

However, France’s fishing policies are anomalous, Essemlali said. "It is not Europe that prevents France from taking the right measures, but rather France that puts the brakes on every time Europe wants to strengthen controls.” This situation is explained by a feeling of omnipotence on the part of French fishermen who, Essemlali said, "think that the ocean belongs to them".

Mandatory onboard cameras

The day after Sea Shepherd released its photographs of the dead fish on social media, Girardin reacted with a tweet. "These images are certainly shocking," she wrote.

"The minister seems surprised to see these images, but unfortunately France has a very long history of deficiencies in fisheries control," said Essemlali, citing tens of thousands of euros in fines for “lax” fisheries control and a formal notice from the European Commission last June.

“It's not a rare occurrence," said Essemlali. "We are quite surprised to see how eagerly the minister endorses and validates the Margiris’ version of the accident.”

Sea Shepherd has taken pains to highlight that overfishing is the number one threat to the survival of the ocean, and this is the subject of a scientific consensus. “This means that there is a responsibility and a duty of transparency on the part of fishermen,” said Essemlali.

Indeed, for the NGO, the heart of the problem remains the opacity of what happens at sea. "The sea is a zone of impunity," said Essemlali. "Our regulations in France are not sufficient to prevent the destruction of the marine ecosystem and effectively protect endangered species. Moreover, these regulations are not respected and controlled.”

This is why Sea Shepherd is calling for mandatory onboard cameras to identify and keep the most destructive fishing vessels berthed in port. They want those who sail the high seas "to be better controlled, to be accountable and to ensure that we are not held to the sole version of the shipowners".

Sea Shepherd's action was also intended to shine a spotlight on the reality of overfishing, something about which French citizens are often unaware, Essemlali said. "When you are a French citizen, you are a member of a nation that has a leading role to play in managing the sea," she told FRANCE 24.

France has the largest coastline in Europe, it is the second largest maritime power in the world and it is the only country to be present on all the world's oceans. "The defence of the ocean should be a major national cause. However, the lines will only move at the political level if public opinion takes hold of this subject.”

Coming a few days before the opening of the One Ocean Summit, a summit organised at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, Sea Shepherd hopes that the disaster it has unveiled will have had enough of an impact on society to help speed up political decision-making.

This article was translated from the original in French.

In city near border, Ukrainians protest Russian threat

Germain MOYON
Sat, 5 February 2022, 


One of he demonstrators at Saturday's protest in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv 

(AFP/Sergey BOBOK)



Protesters in Kharkiv wrapped in the Ukrainian flag (AFP/Sergey BOBOK)



Thousands joined the demonstration (AFP/Sergey BOBOK)


Map showing Russian troop deployments, bases and installations on the borders with Ukraine (AFP/Patricio ARANA)

A Ukrainian flag wrapped around her shoulders, pensioner Iryna Gayeva had a simple message as she demonstrated in second city Kharkiv on Saturday, just 40 kilometres from the Russian border.

"We do not want Russia," she told AFP, as she joined several thousand people for a "Unity March" called by nationalist groups.

"I was born in Crimea. That's enough, they've already taken a homeland from me. I grew up here, I live here, my parents are from Russia but I don't want to see any occupiers," she said.

"This is my home, these are my rules."

Russiaseized the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and began fuelling a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin has now massed more than 100,000 troops across the frontier, sparking fears from the West that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning a major incursion.

Moscow denies it will invade and blames NATO for threatening its security by expanding into eastern Europe.

Kharkiv, an industrial and university centre with a million and a half inhabitants, many Russian-speaking, is more than 400 kilometres east of the capital Kyiv and right next to the Russian border.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that, given the population's strong links to Russia, the city could be a prime target for "occupation" if the situation escalates.

- 2014 unrest -

There appear grounds for the concern.

In 2014, as Russian-backed separatists took over two other eastern cities of Donetsk and Lugansk, fears swirled that Kharkiv could be the next domino to fall.

Pro-Moscow protesters attacked the regional administration with molotov cocktails, as violence broke out with pro-Ukrainian activists.

Eventually Ukrainian forces managed to stop Kharkiv slipping from Kyiv's grasp, saving it from getting engulfed in a conflict that has cost 13,000 lives over the past eight years.

And now, those demonstrating insisted that Russian forces would not be welcome in Kharkiv as pro-Ukrainian patriotism has rocketed.

"In 2014, it was panic," recalled Gayeva.

"This time there is no panic but anger."

At her side, Nadia Rynguina is even more categorical.

"The situation has changed, we have an army worthy of the name, we have citizens ready to defend the country," she explained.

In the event of an intervention, Yury Shmylyov, 79, warned that "it will not be a walk in the park" for the Russian army.

"In 2014, we were afraid to display a blue and yellow flag here, but now look," he said, pointing at the gathered crowd.

- 'Constant threat' -

Behind a large banner reading "Kharkiv is Ukraine", the demonstrators marched between the city's two main squares in sub-zero temperatures.

They chanted patriotic slogans, sang the national anthem and carried signs thanking Britain and the United States for ramping up arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Galyna Kuts, a political scientist in Kharkiv and a member of the regional legislature, said Zelensky's warning of potential "occupation" set nerves jangling.

"Everyone was calling each other to ask what to do, where to flee," she said as she attended the rally.

But after years "living under constant threat of invasion", she insists resident in Kharkiv have steeled themselves for anything.

"People have changed, they know how to survive," she said.

Oleksandr Gerasimov has filled up his tank and is ready to evacuate his family if necessary.

But the 39-year-old demonstrator, insists he is "calm" as he does not believe Moscow will risk an attack against Ukraine's bolstered armed forces.

"Russia would suffer intolerable losses," he said.

gmo/del/pvh

More protesters against Covid measures enter Canada capital

Sat, 5 February 2022

Protests by truckers and their supporters against Covid-19 vaccine mandates are continuing in Ottawa, Canada (AFP/Dave Chan) (Dave Chan)

Protesters again poured into Canada's capital early Saturday to join a convoy of truckers whose occupation of Ottawa to denounce Covid vaccine mandates is now in its second week.

Individuals and families huddled around campfires in bone-chilling weather and erected bouncy castles for children outside Parliament, while waving Canadian flags and anti-government placards.

Police, who were out in force and erected barriers overnight to limit vehicle access to the city center, said they were expecting up to 2,000 protesters -- as well as 1,000 counterprotesters -- to join hundreds of truckers already clogging Ottawa streets.

But organizers of the so-called "Freedom Convoy" told AFP they expected their numbers to swell into the tens of thousands.

Similar protests were planned for Toronto, Quebec City and Winnipeg.

The atmosphere early Saturday appeared more festive than a week earlier, when some protesters waved Confederate flags and Nazi symbols -- which were condemned by government officials -- and clashed with locals.

Police have vowed to end the "unlawful" occupation as soon as possible.

But on Saturday, there were signs the protesters were digging in. They had erected a wooden shed and tents to house food supplies for demonstrators and fuel for the big rigs.

One woman offered passersby hand-warmers as temperatures were forecast to plunge to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit).

Kimberly Ball and her husband had driven five hours from a small town west of Toronto to join the demonstration.

"It's not about whether you get the vaccine or not," she insisted. "It's about our freedom."

Holding back tears, she added: "It's really, really tough. A couple of people we know, friends, also lost their jobs because of these mandates."

Ball has had Covid-19 and said she is not convinced the vaccines are safe and effective.

She is, however, in the minority in Canada, where 90 percent of adults are fully vaccinated.

The Freedom Convoy started on Canada's Pacific coast in late January and picked up supporters along the trek to the capital. The protest has drawn more than 10 million Canadian dollars ($8 million) in online donations.

The number of protesters in Ottawa had peaked at several thousand last Saturday, according to officials, before dwindling to a few hundred by midweek.

This weekend Ottawa police worked to contain the protests to the parliamentary precinct, after widespread complaints of harassment, threats and sleeplessness caused by incessant honking.

amc/bbk/mlm

Canada protests against Covid measures gain steam

Michel COMTE
Sat, 5 February 2022

Truckers packed the streets of Ottawa this week to protest vaccine 

mandates for crossborder travel between Canada and the United States 

(AFP/Dave Chan)

Truckers and supporters opposing Covid-19 vaccine mandates again poured into Ottawa, Canada on February 5, 2022, as the protest entered a second week and spread to other cities

 (AFP/Dave Chan)

A demonstrator carries a jerry can of gasoline to a waiting truck in downtown Ottawa, Canada during a February 5, 2022 protest against Covid-19 restrictions; truckers appear to be preparing for a long stay (AFP/Dave Chan)

Signs opposing Covid-19 restrictions covered an area of Ottawa's Parliament Hill (AFP/Dave Chan)

An occupation of Canada's capital by truckers opposed to vaccine mandates gained steam as it entered its second week on Saturday, with more demonstrators piling onto the clogged streets of Ottawa, while protests kicked off in several other cities.

In the capital, protesters huddled around campfires in bone-chilling temperatures and erected bouncy castles for kids outside Parliament, while waving Canadian flags and shouting anti-government slogans.

The atmosphere appeared more festive than a week earlier, when several protesters waved Confederate flags and Nazi symbols and clashed with locals.

Police, who were out in force and put up barriers overnight to limit vehicle access to the city center, said they were bracing for up to 2,000 protesters -- as well as 1,000 counterprotesters -- to join hundreds of truckers already jamming Ottawa streets.

But organizers of the so-called Freedom Convoy told AFP they expected their numbers to swell into the tens of thousands.

Similar protests were happening in Toronto, Quebec City and Winnipeg. And in southern Alberta province, truckers blocked a major border crossing to the US state of Montana.

"This remains an increasingly volatile and increasingly dangerous demonstration," Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly told a news conference Friday.

With public anger rising -- thousands of residents have complained of harassment by protesters, and an online petition demanding action has drawn 40,000 signatures -- Sloly vowed to crack down on what he called an "unlawful" occupation of the city.

But he offered no timeline.

- No end in sight -

Reached for comment by AFP, protest coordinator Jim Torma said the protesters would not back down.

"They're not going to hide us," Torma said. "We're going to be in (politicians') faces as long as it takes" to force an end to public health restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19.

Kimberly Ball, who with her husband drove five hours from a small town west of Toronto to join the Ottawa protest, told AFP, "It's about our freedom."

Holding back tears, she said, "A couple of people we know, friends, also lost their jobs because of these (vaccine) mandates."

Ball has had Covid and said she questions whether the vaccines are safe and effective.

She is, however, in the minority in Canada, where 90 percent of adults are fully vaccinated.

- A 'fringe minority'? -

The Freedom Convoy started on Canada's Pacific coast in late January and picked up supporters along the long trek to the capital -- as well as more than 10 million Canadian dollars ($8 million) in online donations.

The number of protesters in Ottawa had peaked last Saturday at several thousand before dwindling to a few hundred by midweek, officials said.

The protest has received support from tech magnate Elon Musk and former US president Donald Trump, who in a statement Friday called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a "far left lunatic."

The Canadian prime minister has said the protesters represent only a "fringe minority," though polls show one-third of Canadians support the call to lift all Covid restrictions.

The leaders of two Western provinces, Jason Kenney of Alberta and Scott Moe of Saskatchewan have added their voices to the anti-mandate push.

"There are many jurisdictions around the world that have adopted more common-sense travel protocols than we have now in place in Canada," Kenney said Friday.

Moe, meanwhile, announced an imminent lifting of all pandemic restrictions in Saskatchewan, despite pushback from doctors.

Vaccine mandates and most other Covid measures are the responsibility of provincial authorities in Canada.

"What's necessary is your freedom," Moe said in a video address. "What's necessary is getting your life back to normal."

Ottawa residents, however, are fed up with the chaos the protests have brought to their streets.

On Friday, a class action was launched against the truckers on behalf of residents who said they had been heckled, yelled at to remove their masks and intimidated by honking that measured ear-popping decibels and made sleep near-impossible.

"The Class Members are living in daily torment," reads the court filing, which seeks Can$9.8 million (US$7.7 million) in damages.

Late Friday, GoFundMe removed a Freedom Convoy fundraiser from its website after receiving evidence from law enforcement that the demonstration "has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity."

amc/bbk

Canada protests against Covid measures set to ramp up

Michel COMTE
Fri, 4 February 2022

Truckers packed the streets of Ottawa this week to protest vaccine mandates for crossborder travel between Canada and the United States 

(AFP/Dave Chan)

A week-long occupation of Canada's capital by truckers opposed to vaccine mandates was set to ramp up Saturday with thousands of demonstrators expected to pile into Ottawa while other cities also braced for protests.

Police said they were expecting up to 2,000 protesters as well as 1,000 counter-protesters to join the hundreds already parked in front of parliament, but organizers said tens of thousands were headed to Ottawa.

Similar protests are also planned for Toronto, Quebec City and Winnipeg.

"This remains... an increasingly volatile and increasingly dangerous demonstration," Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly told a news conference Friday.

Following thousands of complaints from local residents of threats and harassment by protesters who have made even sleep difficult with incessant honking, and an online petition signed by 40,000 demanding action, Sloly vowed to crack down on what he called an "unlawful" protest.

But he did not offer a timeline.

Reached for comment by AFP, protest coordinator Jim Torma said on behalf of organizers that the protesters would not back down.

"They're not going to hide us," Torma said. "We're going to be in (politicians') faces as long as it takes" to force an end to public health restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19.

With tensions already high and counter-protesters expected to now converge on the city, however, "the prospects for confrontation remain high," warned federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.

- Trump backs 'Freedom Convoy' -

The so-called Freedom Convoy started on Canada's Pacific coast in late January and picked up supporters along its 4,400-kilometer (2,700 miles) trek to the capital, as well as more than 10 million Canadian dollars ($8 million) in online donations.

However, the online fundraising platform GoFundMe said Friday that it had removed the Freedom Convoy fundraiser from its site after receiving evidence from law enforcement that the demonstration "has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity."

The number of protesters in Ottawa had peaked at several thousand last Saturday, according to officials, before dwindling to a few hundred by midweek.

Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk have both tweeted support for the truckers.

On Friday, former US president Donald Trump encouraged them too, saying in a statement that the "harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau... has destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates."

A recent Abacus poll showed 32 percent of Canadians supported the protesters, although only 10 percent of Canadian adults are unvaccinated.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is isolating after contracting Covid, has refused to meet with the truckers, as others stepped up criticisms of the protesters, accusing them of racism and even terrorism -- labels organizers reject.

This weekend, bridges and roadways into Ottawa will be blocked, with protesters asked to park in lots on the outskirts and walk or use city transit to downtown.

In Toronto, Mayor John Tory said officials were doing "everything we can to avoid the situation that we're seeing in Ottawa."

Toronto police started closing off streets late Friday and installing CCTV cameras to help keep an eye on the planned demonstrations.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, urged the truckers in Ottawa to go home, echoing the protesters' dislike of pandemic restrictions but insisting they are "necessary" to keep the population safe.

"It's not a protest anymore," he told a joint news conference with Canada's 12 other provincial and territorial leaders. "It's become an occupation that is not only hurting families, it's hurting businesses."

- Saskatchewan lifting restrictions -

Premier Jason Kenney of Alberta -- where protesters blocked a border crossing into the US state of Montana -- urged the federal government to start easing travel restrictions and pre-flight Covid tests notably.

"There are many jurisdictions around the world that have adopted more common-sense travel protocols than we have now in place in Canada," he lamented.

Requiring people to wear face masks for indoor activities such as shopping, vaccine mandates and most other Covid measures are provincial responsibilities.

Saskatchewan province this week became the first jurisdiction in Canada to announce an imminent lifting of all those pandemic restrictions -- despite pushback from doctors.

"What's necessary is your freedom," Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in a video address. "What's necessary is getting your life back to normal."

amc/md/leg