Ted Cruz Throws In With Anti-Vaccine Ottawa Trucker Mob As City Declares Emergency

Mary Papenfuss

Mon, February 7, 2022

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) became the latest hard-right politician to back a mob of anti-vaccine Canadian truckers occupying downtown Ottawa, which has declared a state of emergency over the strong-arm protest.

“God bless these Canadian truck drivers,” Cruz crowed in a tweet Sunday.

“They’re defending Canada, America, and they’re standing up for freedom! The government doesn’t have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates.”

Cruz on Saturday clashed with Vancouver’s mayor, who told the rogue truckers to stay away. Cruz suggested in a tweet that the city might learn a lesson with hunger as market shelves emptied without the drivers.

But Mayor Kennedy Stewart fired back that 90% of Canada’s truck drivers are vaccinated and no one’s worried about the absent protesters.

The truckers in what they call the “Freedom Convoy” have been protesting for 10 days in Ottawa against the requirement that they be vaccinated before they can drive across the border into the U.S.

City officials, fearing violence from the rowdy protesters, on Sunday declared a state of emergency.

“We’re in the midst of a serious emergency, the most serious emergency our city has ever faced,” the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, said in an interview.

“Someone is going to get killed or seriously injured because of the irresponsible behavior of some of these people,” he mayor warned.

The truckers convoy was hit Friday with a $9.8 million class-action complaint on behalf of Ottawa citizens for relentlessly blasting their air horns for up to 16 hours a day while jamming streets. They have also been accused of harassing area residents and shoppers, even assaulting some, and ripping masks off residents’ faces.

Ottawa’s premier complained that the protest morphed days ago into an “unacceptable occupation.”

“This is a siege. It is something that is different in our democracy than I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly said.

Similar protests are beginning to spread to Toronto, Winnipeg, Quebec City and other provincial capitals.

After police expressed concerns, GoFundMe on Friday shut down an online fundraising campaign and blocked close to $10 million money raised for the convoy because of “unlawful” activities, it said in a statement.

“We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,” the statement added.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday announced on Twitter he was launching an investigation and accused GoFundMe of “fraud” for “commandeering” the money raised for the truckers. He insisted the money should be refunded.

Though GoFundMe initially said it would refund the money or redirect it to charities, it announced hours before DeSantis’ tweet that it would automatically be refunding all donations.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also complained about GoFundMe’s action on Twitter, and Elon Musk gushed: “Canadian truckers rule.”

Donald Trump Jr. called via a tweet on Friday for all Republican attorneys general in the U.S. to investigate.

Attorneys general Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia and Ken Paxton of Texas all indicated they’re launching investigations into GoFundMe on behalf of the truckers.

Paxton boasted that “patriotic” Texans donated to the “Canadian Truckers’ worthy cause.”

The Canadian Trucking Alliance, the main advocacy organization for the nation’s truckers, and the Ontario Trucking Association have disavowed the protest, the Ottawa Citizen reported. The Trucking Alliance said the vast majority of its members are fully vaccinated and are continuing to work.

University of Ottawa associate criminology professor Michael Kempa said in a CBC-TV interview Sunday that the movement is fundamentally organized and funded by those with an autocratic political agenda, including American interests, and aimed at undermining Canadian rule of law and democracy.

“They’re people interested in undoing the conventional state system, and replacing the Canadian democratic model with something that is much more grassroots authoritarian and far-right conservative,” Kempa said.

“Generally, they are outside, and intent on dismantling, the political mainstream. They’re not interested in the ... liberal system we have here in Canada.”

Kempa said Canadians were taken aback by the truckers behavior and suggested the military should reestablish order.

 

Republican Lawmaker Basically Begs 

Anti-Vax Truckers to Blockade the

Super Bowl

Jack Crosbie
Mon, February 7, 2022

Pro-Trump Rally And Caravan Held On Long Island, New York - Credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

For the past 11 days, hundreds of protestors, many of whom are driving big-rig trucks have occupied Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, blocking streets and disrupting the city with raucous demonstrations. These trucker protests, led by the so-called “Freedom Convoy” now besieging Ottawa, began after the Canadian and U.S. government enacted a rule requiring cross-border truckers to be fully vaccinated in order to get into either of the two countries.

The protests, like massive, heavily polarized movements are wont to do, spiraled into a wider, incoherent demonstration against public health measures as a whole. And now, they may be coming to the U.S.

Analysts watching right-wing chatter on apps like Telegram have recently seen an outpouring of organizing around direct actions similar to Canada’s trucker protests, which spread from the Ottawa occupation to large disruptive actions across the country, including at a border crossing to the U.S. in Alberta. In particular, some right wingers seem to be plotting to shut down the Super Bowl this weekend. Trump megafan and Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers took up that mantle yesterday, giving us this particularly bizarre take:



Rogers is a fringe figure, deep in the far right, but there are signs that the “trucker protest” model is rapidly catching on with more mainstream conservatives. Here’s Rand Paul, often one of the main gateways of the idiocy exchange between the far right and GOP mainstream:



The sentiment seems to be spreading fast, but it seems doubtful that the right would be able to mobilize anything significant in time for the Super Bowl next weekend, according to Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab who studies right-wing movements.

“The desire to provide an American answer to the Canadian protests and cause havoc and headaches is completely there,” Holt told Rolling Stone. “What isn’t, at this point, is a clear plan and call to action.”

Holt noted on Twitter that some of the familiar spokes of right-wing organizing are already there — media networks are covering the trucker protests favorably, groups are starting to discuss or solicit financing for some form of action, and many of the groups have large numbers of members. But there’s no one narrative or specific action that has taken hold in the way that the right rallied at in Washington, D.C., last Jan. 6, or during Charlottesville’s Unite the Right event.

“If organizers are able to speak over that frenzy with a clear plan to action, there may be a potential to generate a similar event, though I’m skeptical of its ability to capture the same scale it did in Canada,” Holt said. “Maybe most importantly, it’s not totally clear that American truckers are actually ready or willing to do this.”

In other words, we’ll have to hope that America’s truckers are more responsible behind the wheel than the ones currently honking their horns in Canada’s capital.

MILLIONAIRE TRUCKERS PROTEST
Canadian police seize fuel, remove oil tanker; court silences protesters' horns


Truckers and supporters continue to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa

Mon, February 7, 2022
By Anna Mehler Paperny, David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Police in Canada's capital said on Monday they had seized thousands of liters of fuel and removed an oil tanker as part of a crackdown to end an 11-day protest against COVID-19 measures, adding truck and protester numbers had fallen significantly.

The protest, which has gridlocked Ottawa, has been largely peaceful but ear-splitting horn blaring by protesters saw a court on Monday grant an interim injunction preventing people from sounding horns in the city's downtown.

The so-called "Freedom Convoy" consisting of truckers and other motorists started as a movement opposing a Canadian vaccine mandate for cross-border drivers - a requirement mirrored by a U.S. rule - has morphed into a rallying point against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau' public health measures.

Trudeau, who appeared on Monday for the first time in nearly a week after being infected by COVID, said the protest has to stop. Responding to an emergency debate in the parliament, Trudeau denounced the tactics used by demonstrators.

"This is a story of a country that got through this pandemic by being united and a few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are," he said.

Trudeau and his family left Ottawa to an undisclosed location as the convoy started rolling into the city due to security concerns. The protests last week included some Confederate and Nazi flags. AND LOT'S OF AMERICAN FLAGS

Canadians have largely followed government's health measures and nearly 79% of the eligible population has taken two doses of the vaccine. But recent polls have shown frustrations against restrictions are growing.

While Ottawa awoke to its second week of what its political and policing leaders now describe as a siege, Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said on Monday activity has decreased at the blockades. This weekend, police counted 1,000 trucks and 5,000 protesters, down from 3,000 trucks and 10,000 to 15,000 protesters last weekend, Sloly added.

"We are turning up the heat in every way we possibly can," Sloly told reporters, days after he said there may not be a "policing solution" to the occupation. "We are asking for a major push of resources to come in the next 72 hours."

On Monday, a Canadian judge granted a 10-day injunction preventing people from sounding horns in downtown Ottawa. The injunction was part of a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents, some of whom have said they feel unsafe in their own neighbourhood.

The Ambassador Bridge, a major road bridge connecting Canada and the United States was temporarily closed in both directions, the Canadian government website said https://bit.ly/3rww8zo late Feb. 7. The Windsor-Detroit border is the busiest international crossing in North America.

'PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE'

Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell told city councillors on Monday police had received "active threats to public figures throughout this occupation," which they continue to investigate.

Ottawa police have received help from hundreds of officers in other police agencies, but they say it is not enough. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson asked for reinforcements in a letter on Monday to Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.

"The occupation has turned into an aggressive and hateful occupation of our neighbourhoods," he wrote. "People are living in fear and are terrified." He called the honking "tantamount to psychological warfare."

A short stretch of Metcalfe Street in downtown Ottawa, home to Canada's parliament, central bank, and buildings including Trudeau's office, smelled of campfire on Monday. A clustering of trucks, cars and tractors without trailers bore signs deriding everything from vaccines and mandates to Canada's carbon tax.

One sign showed a poster of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees rights including that of life, liberty and security of the person - subject to "reasonable limits."

'PRIME MINISTER STOP HIDING'

Packets of water bottles, briquettes and diapers were piled high beside open-sided white tents with tables of food.

There was also evidence of pushback from residents. Small signs in the ground-floor windows of an apartment building a few blocks away said: "GO HOME MORONS" and "VACCINES SAVE LIVES."

"We cannot allow an angry crowd to reverse the course that continues to save lives in this last stretch. This should never be a precedent for how to make policy in Canada," Mendicino told reporters on Monday.

Trudeau did not attend the press conference and missed question period in the parliament.

"When will the prime minister stop hiding, show up for Canadians, show some leadership and fix the mess that he's created?" interim Conservative Party leader Candice Bergen, who has supported the protests, told the House of Commons.

On Sunday night, police began removing gas and fuel supplies at a logistics encampment set up by protesters after the city's mayor declared a state of emergency https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/protest-against-vaccine-mandates-paralyzing-canada-capital-mayor-says-2022-02-06 on Sunday.

A well-organized supply chain -- including portable saunas, a community kitchen and bouncy castles for children -- has sustained the protesters. It has relied partly on funding from sympathizers in the United States, police said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have praised the truckers.

Over the weekend, protests spilled over into other large Canadian cities, including the financial capital Toronto, and were met with counter demonstrations.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler-Paperny in Ottawa; Additonal reporting by Radhika AnilkumarWriting by Denny Thomas; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Lisa Shumaker and Michael Perry)

Meta's vision for the metaverse is an 'old idea' that's 'never worked,' tech CEO says


Isobel Asher Hamilton
Sun, February 6, 2022

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.Facebook


Phil Libin is the former boss of Evernote and is now CEO of videoconference company Mmhmm.

He told Insider he'd tried out Horizon Workrooms, Meta's VR-meeting software, and wasn't impressed.

He described Meta's vision of the metaverse as "uncreative."

When tech founder Phil Libin donned his Oculus VR headset to try out Meta's first metaverse product, he was hoping it wouldn't be terrible.

"I had a very, very strong feeling that it would suck, but I went into it with as much hope as possible that I would be pleasantly surprised," Libin said in an interview with Insider.

He and his employees at videoconference company Mmhmm, where he is CEO, were trying out Meta's Horizon Workrooms product. Horizon Workrooms lets people use VR headsets for virtual work meetings in the so-called metaverse.

Libin said his gut instinct turned out to be correct. "It was only tolerable for a few minutes," he said.

He believes that using VR for meetings is less enticing than familiar technologies such as Zoom, where people can still do real-world things like drink a cup of coffee. "Can't do that with a giant plastic thing on my face without spilling hot coffee all over myself," Libin said.

Horizon Workrooms, Meta's VR meetings product.Facebook

The word "metaverse" is borrowed from science fiction and refers to a future version of the internet accessed through immersive technologies such as virtual-reality and augmented-reality headsets. It has been pushed in particular by Mark Zuckerberg, who rebranded Facebook as Meta in October.

In its fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday, Meta said its new metaverse business lost $10 billion and its user base shrank for the first time in its history. Meta stock plummeted 26.4% Thursday, erasing nearly $240 billion from the company's valuation in the largest one-day wipeout in US corporate history.

Libin has previously been critical of the hype surrounding the metaverse. In a podcast interview last month, he compared the hype with communist propaganda he received as a child living in the former Soviet Union.

And he remains unconvinced.

He says the vision of the metaverse presented by Meta — one of an "interconnected 3D world that we experience for many hours a day, both for fun and for work primarily through VR" — "that package of things is godawful."

"It's an old idea," Libin told Insider. "It's uncreative, it's been tried many, many times over the past four decades and it's never worked."

Proponents of the metaverse believe we'll have to wait to see its full potential, Libin said, but he doesn't think that's how great technology works.

"I think great technology starts out being primitive, but it starts out being great immediately," he said. Over time, he said, great technology gets "more polished and more mature and more sophisticated."

He gave the example of early video-game consoles and his first-ever purchase from Amazon in the mid-1990s.

"It was my very first ever e-commerce transaction — went to the Amazon website, and Amazon in the mid-'90 was super primitive. It was like a text-based site, all you could do is buy books from it. And it didn't have one-click checkout; it was very, very basic. But I bought a couple of books and I remember understanding at that point, this is amazing."

As for Horizon Workrooms, Libin said: "It's not gonna get better because it started bad. It started stupid. It can get more sophisticated, but it'll just be more sophisticated — but still bad."

Read the original article on Business Insider

California warns Tesla over racial discrimination allegations

THE FACE OF HUBRIS

Jacob Knutson
Mon, February 7, 2022

Tesla said Monday that a California state agency warned it has grounds for a civil complaint over allegations of race discrimination and harassment at the company.

Why it matters: A federal jury in California last year ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages to a Black former employee who accused the company of ignoring racist abuse he endured from other workers.

The company disclosed the notice from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in an annual regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The big picture: The filing also included a disclosure that the company received a subpoena from the SEC in November to ensure compliance with a previous 2018 settlement deal that required lawyers to vet all of Elon Musk's tweets about the company before they go out.

The SEC has accused Musk of violating the terms of the deal on at least two occasions, saying he has sent unauthorized tweets regarding Tesla's solar roof production volume and its stock price.

Lawyers for Musk have previously criticized the SEC over the settlement, saying it trampled "on Musk's First Amendment rights" in an "unconstitutional power grab" that "smacks of retaliation and censorship."

Go deeper: Tesla agrees to fix "rolling stop" software feature over safety fears

California warns Tesla it may sue over race discrimination and harassment allegations

Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY
Mon, February 7, 2022

A California state agency warned Tesla it has grounds for a civil complaint over charges of race discrimination and harassment, the automaker disclosed Monday.

Tesla disclosed the notice from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in an annual regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The automaker said it received the notice on Jan. 3.

The state investigated “undisclosed allegations of race discrimination and harassment at unspecified Tesla locations,” the company said in the SEC filing.


“The DFEH gave notice that, based upon the evidence collected, it believes that it has grounds to file a civil complaint against Tesla,” Tesla said.

SHAREHOLDERS WANT ELON MUSK TO PAY: 

Tesla shareholders want Elon Musk to pay $13 billion for role in acquisition of SolarCity

TESLA DRIVER CHARGED IN AUTOPILOT CRASH: 

Tesla driver charged with vehicular manslaughter after deadly 2019 Autopilot crash

DFEH declined to comment.

Last year a federal jury in California ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages in a racial harassment lawsuit brought by a Black former employee at the company’s factory in Fremont, California.

“The Company does not believe that the facts and law justify the verdict,” Tesla said in the SEC filing. It said a court decision in its request for a new trial or a reduction in damages is expected soon.

“Tesla will pursue next steps, including an appeal, if necessary,” the company said.

The company's diversity track record has been under scrutiny for some time.

At the automaker’s annual meeting in October, the majority of Tesla investors voted for the automaker to release detailed data about the demographics of its workforce.

Although the resolution to force disclosure of the company's EEO-1 report was supported by the majority of shareholders, it is up to Tesla whether or not to adopt it.


A Tesla charges at a station in Topeka, Kansas, on April 5, 2021.

The EEO-1 report, which breaks down the race and gender of a company’s workforce by job categories, is filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The report is private unless a company discloses it.

USA TODAY gathered EEO-1 reports from 83 of the nation’s top 100 companies and found deep racial inequities despite corporate pledges to do better after George Floyd's killing in 2020.

White and male employees remain overrepresented in positions that pay the highest salaries, offer the best benefits and provide a path to promotions in the Standard & Poor's 100. Black workers, particularly women, tend to be concentrated in the lowest ranks of America’s leading corporations.

Tesla previously disclosed that its U.S. workforce is diverse but 83% of those in company leadership roles are men and 59% are white. Tesla also said that 79% of the workforce, 75% of new hires and 77% of promotions in 2020 were men.

Black and African American employees comprised 10% of the workforce but 4% of leadership, 12% of new hires and 10% of promotions in 2020. Hispanic and Latino employees were 22% of the workforce, 4% of leadership, 27% of new hires and 24% of promotions.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California warns Tesla it may sue over race discrimination, harassment

Judge dismisses fired Amazon worker's lawsuit alleging discrimination

Mon, February 7, 2022,

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday sided with Amazon.com Inc in dismissing a discrimination lawsuit that workplace organizer Christian Smalls had filed against his former employer.

U.S. District Judge Rachel Kovner rejected Smalls' claim that Amazon had fired him because he is Black and had opposed discriminatory COVID-19 policies.

Smalls' allegation that Amazon subjected a largely non-white workforce to conditions inferior to that of its mostly white managers, by failing to provide necessary protective gear, failed on the merits as well, Kovner said.

Smalls had no immediate comment. Amazon did not immediately comment.

The online retailer terminated Smalls in March 2020, saying he joined a protest at its warehouse on New York City's Staten Island despite being on paid quarantine from close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19.

In the months since, Smalls has led an organizing campaign at the warehouse to create what he and peers call the Amazon Labor Union and demand safer conditions, higher wages and job security. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board said last month that the group could proceed with a union election.

Smalls' firing has remained an issue for New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who wants a court order requiring his reinstatement. Smalls has the option to file an amended complaint within 30 days, as well.

The case is Smalls v Amazon Inc, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 20-05492.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, California, and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

BYE BYE KOCH BRO'S, HELLO TRUMPETTES

Heritage Foundation, former powerhouse of GOP policy, adjusts in face of new competition from Trump allies



Jeff Stein and Yeganeh Torbati
Mon, February 7, 2022,

The Heritage Foundation has long shaped mainstream Republican policy in Washington. It drafted much of Ronald Reagan's agenda to slash federal spending and launched a ferocious campaign to repeal Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

But in recent months, the venerable think tank in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol has revamped its leadership after its former president, Kay Coles James, was subject to a torrent of criticism from a prominent conservative cable host. Heritage replaced James with a Texas firebrand more determined to fight pandemic restrictions, "critical race theory" in schools, and "teaching transgenderism to kindergartners," bending the institution toward issues that have resonated with former president Donald Trump and his allies.

The leadership changes mark a retreat from traditional but stodgy fiscal and foreign policy issues in favor of the hot-button education and vaccine debates that increasingly defined the Republican Party in the era of Trump. The change also comes as Heritage is struggling to compete for right-wing dollars while new think tanks are cropping up around town, including several launched by such Trump acolytes as former White House budget chief Russ Vought and top domestic policy aide Brooke Rollins.

Under James, who led Heritage until last year, the foundation clashed with Trump allies over the killing of George Floyd, policies toward Big Tech, and the massive explosion of federal spending under Trump. Frequently attacked by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, James announced in March that she soon would be stepping down. The new director, Kevin Roberts, most recently led the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. He told the Heritage news organization, the Daily Signal, that his top three priorities at Heritage are "education, education, and education."

The leadership change also more closely aligns the leadership of the Heritage Foundation with the views of several members of its board of trustees, who believed that James had not moved aggressively enough to position Heritage as opposed to coronavirus-related government restrictions at the outset of the pandemic, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter.

"Shouting out Reagan platitudes in 2020 is not what you want to hear, and Kevin gets all that," said one conservative strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to frankly discuss the situation.

In an interview, Roberts strongly disputed that Heritage would be less focused on economic and fiscal issues, pointing to existing and upcoming work with GOP lawmakers on that topic.

Rob Bluey, Heritage's chief spokesman, said James's decision to leave her post in 2021 was "totally her choice." A spokesman for James, who now serves in the Cabinet of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and remains a Heritage trustee, did not respond to requests for comment.

Heritage's sway over the Republican Party has dramatically weakened, in part because of how Trump changed the party.

The coronavirus also proved a divisive force within the building. As the coronavirus pandemic spread in the spring 2020, Heritage leadership under James rejected an article from one of its scholars denouncing government restrictions, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Heritage's offices stayed closed for about three months, and signs urging masking became something of a joke for many conservatives who mocked the concept.

"Heritage came around to opposing the lockdowns later, but at the beginning the idea was, 'Let's not attack lockdowns,' " one person familiar with the matter said. "It was very controversial inside the building."

By contrast, under the leadership of Roberts, the Texas Public Policy Foundation reopened two weeks after the coronavirus first hit. Roberts said he was among the most outspoken members of Gov. Greg Abbott's, R-Texas, pandemic "state strike force" in pushing for an end to coronavirus-related restrictions. By April 3, 2020, the Texas Public Policy Foundation was already warning that the isolation orders were far more dangerous than the pandemic.

"I was among the most outspoken that the shutdowns were awful - that they were worse than the disease itself," Roberts told The Washington Post in an interview. "And I am sorry to report that I was 100% right."

Bluey said in an email to The Post that the institution "has consistently opposed government lockdowns," pointing to a set of April 2020 recommendations that said state and local leaders should quickly reopen businesses and schools "except in communities where an outbreak is occurring or believed to be imminent." Later Heritage reports criticized a model used to justify coronavirus restrictions and focused on their economic consequences.

Roberts's opinion is widely shared among conservative cable news hosts and many Republican politicians. The pandemic has killed more than 900,000 Americans.

Heritage now finds itself trying to catch up after watching some of its core tenets become shredded during Trump's tenure.

Even as Heritage staffers cycled into the federal government to staff the Trump administration, the think tank found itself repeatedly at odds with then-President Trump's allies. Heritage officials have long decried big government deficits, but Trump added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt, the most by any president. Trump also imposed enormously controversial tariffs on foreign countries, while Heritage has long advocated free trade. Trump took direct aim at the Silicon Valley giants who donate heavily to conservative causes, and Heritage experts criticized Trump's attacks on China.

Carlson, a Trump ally and arguably the most influential conservative voice in the country, often led the charge. In 2019, Carlson said Heritage "no longer represents the interest of conservatives, at least on the question of tech" and criticized a Heritage report that rejected government intervention that would punish tech companies for removing conservative speech.

In 2020, Carlson included James in a roundup of conservative leaders who "joined the left's chorus" in not strongly enough denouncing violence and property destruction at protests of the murder of George Floyd. James, who is Black, wrote an op-ed for Fox News' website in May 2020 saying that she does "not condone the violence spreading across this country in response to Floyd's horrific killing." She also condemned the "ugly racism that stains our nation's history and afflicts us like a cancer of the soul."

Carlson called the op-ed a "long screed denouncing America as an irredeemably racist nation," and he urged Heritage donors to direct their dollars elsewhere.

In August 2021, months after James had announced her resignation, Carlson aired a segment accusing Heritage of taking money from powerful tech companies, a claim the group called "patently false," citing James's rejection of Facebook and Google donations in 2020.

"We agree with Tucker Carlson on many issues, including his concerns about Big Tech," Bluey said, adding that the think tank applauds Carlson "for his pursuit of the truth when so many others are afraid to ask tough questions." Carlson declined to comment.

Heritage's evolution comes after former top Trump aides started rival think tanks competing for conservative dollars.

Vought, the former OMB director, started a group called Center for Renewing America, which is focused on voter fraud, Big Tech and "critical race theory."

Another former senior Trump official, Brooke Rollins, launched America First Policy Institute with former Trump senior aides Larry Kudlow, Chad Wolf and Linda McMahon. Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, joined the Conservative Partnership Institute started by former Heritage president Jim DeMint, after leaving the administration. One former Trump official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to frankly describe the state of the party, said the "red meat" among Republicans is now issues such as school choice and opposing vaccine mandates, with the economic issues that Heritage used to focus on existing in a second tier.

Heritage's biggest name among former Trump officials is former vice president Mike Pence, now reviled within the Trump wing of the GOP for his refusal to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"People do not walk around in fear of the Heritage Foundation the way they did 10 years ago," said Avik Roy, a former health-care policy adviser to Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and the president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a think tank. "Heritage's model, or self-conception, is that it gets to define what is conservative and everyone else has to fall in line. Particularly if you think about how Trump disrupted what it means to be a conservative, Heritage is no longer in a position to be a party-line enforcer."

Added Jane Calderwood, who served as chief of staff to former senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, of Heritage: "They were a big player, and anything they said was considered gospel by certain people. … Now it's just whatever Trump wants, he gets."

Roberts, the new Heritage president, downplayed these challenges in an interview and stressed that he and other Heritage officials are in close communication with senior GOP officials in crafting the party's agenda. A spokesman for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the House GOP minority leader, said Heritage remains involved with McCarthy's office on policy and on oversight measures related to the Biden administration.

The think tank is positioning itself to play a key role in the emerging flash points for the party. Roberts has made clear in several interviews that he views cultural questions - including over education and "critical race theory" - as top priorities. He has talked critically of Silicon Valley, after Carlson chastised James for being allegedly too soft on Big Tech. He has defined a "movement conservative" as someone who opposes same-sex marriage. "There's another group of conservatives who are not movement conservatives, because they are weak and wrong on the social issues. Marriage, transgender stuff," Roberts said.

Roberts insisted that economic policy remains "crucial" to the think tank's mission and said he was personally involved in crafting an economic blueprint likely to be released soon.

"Those are tensions inside the movement, and to the extent that Heritage reflects the movement, yeah, we have those tensions. But there's a whole series of worse situations than the word 'tension,' " Roberts said. "I believe in creative conflict."

Israel’s Bennett vows action on Pegasus after reports of domestic police spying


Israel’s domestic spying scandal widened Monday, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowing government action following new reports that police illegally used the Pegasus malware to hack phones of dozens of prominent figures.

© Mario Goldman, AFP/File

The latest bombshell from business daily Calcalist alleged that Pegasus was used against a son of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisors, as well as activists, senior government officials, businessmen and others.

Calcalist had previously reported that the controversial malware, which can turn a phone into a pocket spying device, was used by police against leaders of an anti-Netanyahu protest movement.

After Monday’s report emerged, Bennett vowed that his government “won’t leave this without a response”.

“The reports apparently describe a very grave situation that is unacceptable in a democracy,” Bennett said.

“These cyber tools were designed to fight terrorism and serious crime, not be used against citizens. We will see to a transparent, in-depth and quick inquiry because all of us—citizens of the State of Israel, government ministers and all establishments—deserve answers.”

As Bennett pledged action, Minister for Public Security Omer Barlev, who oversees the police, said he would seek authorisation for a government commission of inquiry.

Barlev said that, if approved, the probe would be led by a retired judge to uncover “violations of civil rights and privacy”.

‘Shocked’

Pegasus, a malware product made by the Israeli firm NSO, is at the centre of a months-long international scandal following revelations that it was used by governments worldwide to spy on activists, politicians, journalists and even heads of state.

Israel had come under fire for allowing the export of the invasive technology to states with poor human rights records, but the Calcalist reports have unleashed domestic outrage.

President Isaac Herzog suggested the credibility of key Israeli institutions was at stake.

“We must not lose our democracy. We must not lose our police. And we must certainly not lose public trust in them. This requires an in-depth and thorough investigation,” Herzog said.

Calcalist said dozens of people were targeted who were not suspected of criminal conduct, and without police receiving the necessary court approval.

They include senior leaders of the finance, justice and communication ministries, supermarket magnate Rami Levy, mayors, Ethiopian-Israelis who led protests against alleged police misconduct, and former Netanyahu advisors Topaz Luk and Jonatan Urich.

Avner Netanyahu, one of the premier’s sons, was also on the list. “I truly am shocked,” he wrote on Facebook.

In another revelation set to rock Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, Calcalist reported that key witness Ilan Yeshua, former chief executive of the Walla news site, was a target.

Netanyahu is accused of seeking to trade regulatory favours with media moguls in exchange for favourable coverage, including on Walla. He denies the charges.

The Justice Ministry confirmed to AFP that the Jerusalem District Court cancelled a hearing in Netanyahu’s trial scheduled for Tuesday, and instructed prosecutors to answer questions from the former premier’s lawyers about the extent of the espionage.

The trial also suffered a blow last week when multiple Israeli broadcasters reported that police may have used spyware on Shlomo Filber, a former Netanyahu ally turned state witness.

Those reports, which Netanyahu described as an “earthquake”, did not mention Pegasus.

NSO has consistently denied wrongdoing throughout the multi-stranded Pegasus scandal, stressing that it does not operate the system once sold to clients, and has no access to any of the data collected.

(AFP)

World must work together to tackle plastic ocean threat: WWF

Stéphane ORJOLLET
Mon, 7 February 2022


Much of the plastic pollution in the sea is from single-use items (AFP/Luis ACOSTA)

Plastic has infiltrated all parts of the ocean and is now found "in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale" wildlife group WWF said on Tuesday, calling for urgent efforts to create an international treaty on plastics.

Tiny fragments of plastic have reached even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet: it peppers Arctic sea ice and has been found inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean, the Mariana Trench.

There is no international agreement in place to address the problem, although delegates meeting in Nairobi for a United Nations environment meeting this month are expected to launch talks on a worldwide plastics treaty.

WWF sought to bolster the case for action in its latest report, which synthesises more than 2,000 separate scientific studies on the impacts of plastic pollution on the oceans, biodiversity and marine ecosystems.

The report acknowledged that there is currently insufficient evidence to estimate the potential repercussions on humans.

But it found that the fossil-fuel derived substance "has reached every part of the ocean, from the sea surface to the deep ocean floor, from the poles to coastlines of the most remote islands and is detectable in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale".

- 'Saturation point' -

According to some estimates, between 19 and 23 million tons of plastic waste is washed into the world's waterways every year, the WWF report said.

This is largely from single-use plastics, which still constitute more than 60 percent of marine pollution, although more and more countries are acting to ban their use.

"In many places (we are) reaching some kind of saturation point for marine ecosystems, where we're approaching levels that pose a significant threat," said Eirik Lindebjerg, Global Plastics Policy Manager at WWF.

In some places there is a risk of "ecosystem collapse", he said.

Many people have seen images of seabirds choking on plastic straws or turtles wrapped in discarded fishing nets, but he said the danger is across the entire marine food web.

It "will affect not only the whale and the seal and the turtle, but huge fish stocks and the animals that depend on those", he added.

In one 2021 study, 386 fish species were found to have ingested plastic, out of 555 tested.

Separate research, looking at the major commercially fished species, found up to 30 percent of cod in a sample caught in the North Sea had microplastics in their stomach.

Once in the water, the plastic begins to degrade, becoming smaller and smaller until it is a "nanoplastic", invisible to the naked eye.

So even if all plastic pollution stopped completely, the volume of microplastics in the oceans could still double by 2050.

But plastic production continues to rise, potentially doubling by 2040, according to projections cited by WWF, with ocean plastic pollution expected to triple during the same period.

- Enduring risk -

Lindebjerg compares the situation to the climate crisis -- and the concept of a "carbon budget", that caps the maximum amount of CO2 that can be released into the atmosphere before a global warming cap is exceeded.

"There is actually a limit to how much plastic pollution our marine ecosystems can absorb," he said.

Those limits have already been reached for microplastics in several parts of the world, according to WWF, particularly in the Mediterranean, the Yellow and East China Seas (between China, Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula) and in the Arctic sea ice.

"We need to treat it as a fixed system that doesn't absorb plastic, and that's why we need to go towards zero emissions, zero pollution as fast as possible," said Lindebjerg.

WWF is calling for talks aimed at drawing up an international agreement on plastics at the UN environment meeting, from February 28 to March 2 in Nairobi.

It wants any treaty to lead to global standards of production and real "recyclability".

Trying to clean up the oceans is "extremely difficult and extremely expensive", Lindebjerg said, adding that it was better on all metrics not to pollute in the first place.

so/klm/mh/cdw

Spinal cord implant helps paralysed patients walk again


New research helps patients with lower body paralysis walk again thanks to a spinal cord implant that stimulates muscles 

(AFP/Philippe LOPEZ)

Sara HUSSEIN
Mon, February 7, 2022

In 2017, Michel Roccati was in a motorbike accident that left his lower body completely paralysed. In 2020, he walked again, thanks to a breakthrough new spinal cord implant.

The implant sends electrical pulses to his muscles, mimicking the action of the brain, and could one day help people with severe spinal injuries stand, walk and exercise.

It builds on long-running research using electrical pulses to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, including a 2018 study by the same team that helped people with partial lower-body paralysis walk again.

"It was a very emotional experience," Roccati told journalists of the first time the electrical pulses were activated and he took a step.

He was one of three patients involved in the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, all of them unable to move their lower bodies after accidents.

The three were able to take steps shortly after the six-centimetre implant was inserted and its pulses were fine-tuned.

"These electrodes were longer and larger than the ones we had previously implanted, and we could access more muscles thanks to this new technology," said Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon at the Lausanne University Hospital who helped lead the trial.

Those initial steps, while breathtaking for the researchers and their patients, were difficult and required support bars and significant upper body strength.

But the patients could start rehabilitation immediately, and within four months Roccati could walk with only a frame for balance.

"It's not that it's a miracle right away, not by far," cautioned Gregoire Courtine, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology who led the research with Bloch.

But with practice, Roccati can now stand for several hours and walk nearly a kilometre. The Italian described being able to look clients in the eye, have a drink at a standing table and take a shower standing up thanks to the implant.

He and others in the trial were also able to climb stairs, swim and canoe.

- 'I see the improvement' -

The improvements depend on the electrical stimulation, which is triggered via a computer carried by the patient that activates a pattern of pulses.

Two of the patients can now activate their muscles slightly without electrical pulses, but only minimally.

By comparison, some patients with partial lower body paralysis treated in an earlier study are able to move their previously immobile legs and stand without stimulation.

The three men in the new trial were all injured at least a year before the implant and Bloch hopes to trial the technology sooner after an accident.

"What we all think is that if you try earlier it will have more effect," she said.

There are challenges: in early recovery, a patient's capacity is still in flux, making it hard to set a baseline from which to measure progress, and ongoing medical treatment and pain could hamper rehabilitation.

So far, the implants are also only suitable for those with an injury above the lower thoracic spinal cord, the section running from the base of the neck to the abdomen, because six centimetres of healthy spinal cord is needed.

The idea of using electrical pulses to address paralysis stemmed from technology used to regulate pain, and the researchers said they see scope for further applications.

They have also shown it can regulate low blood pressure in spinal cord injury patients and plan to soon release a study on its use for severe Parkinson's disease.

The team cautioned that significant work remains before the implant is available for treatment outside clinical studies, but said they receive around five messages a day from patients seeking help.

They next plan to miniaturise the computer controlling the pulses so it can be implanted in patients and controlled with a smartphone.

They expect this to be possible this year, and have plans for large-scale trials involving 50-100 patients in the United States and then Europe.

Roccati said he activates the implant daily at home and continues to get stronger.

"I see the improvement every day," he said.

"I feel better when I use it."

sah/qan