NO NEED FOR AUSTERITY

Canada's Ontario sees smaller deficit

on higher tax revenue

Tue, August 9, 2022 

By Ismail Shakil and Fergal Smith

OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) -Ontario, Canada's most populous province, said on Tuesday it expected a smaller budget deficit as soaring inflation boosted tax revenue projections for the current fiscal year.

The province projected a budget deficit of C$18.8 billion ($14.6 billion) for the 2022-23 fiscal year, compared to a C$19.9 billion deficit seen in the budget in April.

April's budget, which forecast steadily declining deficits over the medium term helped by a strong economic recovery and projected a return to surplus by 2027-28, could not pass a parliamentary process before the provincial elections on June 2.

Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives returned to power in June with promises to boost spending, raise the minimum wage and provide tax relief at the gas pump.

The budget was tabled in the parliament again on Tuesday after Ontario Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell marked the opening of a new provincial parliamentary session with a speech delivered on behalf of Ford.

In the speech, the government noted a growing sense of uncertainty and warned an economic slowdown could be coming to the province as Canada's central bank rapidly hikes interest rates to curb inflation.

"Ontario, like the rest of Canada and North America, must be prepared for the possibility of a near-term economic slowdown," Dowdeswell said in the speech.

The speech reiterated promises to build more homes and highways, and again called on the federal government to allow for increased immigration to address labor demand.

Inflation hit a near 40-year high of 8.1% in June. This prompted the Bank of Canada to raise its policy rate by 100 basis points last month, its fourth increase this year, as it pledged more to come.

That has also raised tax revenue projections for Ontario, with total revenue expected to be C$1.2 billion higher than forecast in the 2022 budget, according to a fiscal update for the first quarter.

Inflation tends to boost nominal GDP, a driver of tax revenues.

"The fiscal update suggests Ontario's finances are in better shape than projected at budget time, and we see some potential for further upside," said Marc Desormeaux, principal economist at Desjardins.

Ontario is Canada's manufacturing heartland and home to roughly 40% of Canada's 38.2 million people. It is one of the world's largest sub-sovereign borrowers, with publicly held debt standing at C$418.7 billion ($324.85 billion) at the end of the last fiscal year.

($1 = 1.2889 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Fergal Smith in Toronto, additional reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and David Gregorio)

Tesla discloses lobbying effort to set up factory in Canada

 The Tesla logo is seen on a car at Tesla Motors' new showroom in Manhattan's

 Meatpacking District in New York

Tue, August 9, 2022 ·

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc is lobbying the Ontario government as part of an effort to set up an "advanced manufacturing facility" in Canada, a filing by the electric-vehicle maker to the province's Office of the Integrity Commissioner showed.

The company's Canadian unit is working with the government to "identify opportunities for industrial facility permitting reforms", the amended filing from July 18 said.

Tesla as well as the office of Ontario's minister for economic development, job creation and trade did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne had said in May there were "very active discussions with a number of players" to develop an EV supply chain in Canada.

Tesla has been ramping up production with Chief Executive Elon Musk last week speaking half in jest to shareholders yelling "Canada" - "We've got a lot of Canadas, I'm half Canadian, maybe I should."

He said the company "might be able" to announce a new factory later this year and it could ultimately have 10-12 gigafactories. Tesla manufactures vehicles from two factories in the United States and one each in Germany and China.

U.S. electric-vehicle makers are also looking to source materials and build cars closer home to diversify supply chains and lower their dependence on China, the world's largest supplier of EV batteries.

Such efforts could gain pace from a $430-billion bill approved on Sunday by the U.S. Senate that restricts automakers from using Chinese-made materials by phasing in required percentages of North American-sourced battery components.

After 2023, vehicles with batteries that have Chinese parts could not receive the credit, while critical minerals also face limitations on sourcing.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Tesla's next gigafactory might be in Canada


Rebecca Bellan
Tue, August 9, 2022

While onstage at Tesla's annual shareholder event, CEO Elon Musk hinted that the automaker would choose the location for a new gigafactory by the end of the year. Musk jokingly asked his fans where the company should build, and when a few yelled out "Canada!" Musk replied, "I'm half Canadian. Maybe I should."

It seemed like a throwaway comment at the time, but a July lobbyist registration from Tesla reveals the company might actually have its eyes set on the U.S.'s neighbor to the north.

Tesla recently added an amendment to its registration with Ontario’s Office of the Integrity Commissioner that sets forth the automaker's plans to engage with the Ontario government to identify opportunities for "industrial and/or advanced manufacturing facility." To sweeten the deal, Tesla's lobbyists propose such a facility could "increase the competitiveness of Ontario and its ability to attract capital investment."

Tesla did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's requests for comment.

Ontario may not need much of a push to welcome a Tesla gigafactory into its lands. The region already has a thriving automotive ecosystem that plays off its neighbor Detroit. Ford and General Motors already have existing plants there. In fact, in April, the Canadian government invested about $415 million into GM's two new plants in Ontario, including one that will produce electric vehicles.

“By making Ontario a competitive business environment, including reducing the cost of doing business by $7 billion annually, we have attracted nearly $16 billion in electric vehicle investments in the last 20 months," Vic Fedeli, minister of Ontario's economic development, job creation and trade, said in a statement shared with TechCrunch. "We are building an end-to-end supply chain right here in Ontario, and expect to continue to see more companies from around the world looking to our province as a place to invest and grow.”

Musk said during the shareholder meeting last week that Tesla could ultimately have 10 to 12 gigafactories globally. Even though Tesla has opened gigafactories in Berlin and Shanghai, the U.S. still makes up for the vast majority of Tesla vehicle sales globally, so it makes sense the company might choose another North American location for its next factory -- especially considering the headaches the Shanghai factory has endured, what with consistent lockdowns and factory line updates causing vehicle sales in China to fall.

It's possible that Tesla is rushing to find locations to build batteries and vehicles closer to home after the Inflation Reduction Act was approved on Sunday by the U.S. Senate. The $430 billion bill could restrict automakers from using Chinese-made materials and require them to use North American-sourced battery components if they want to be eligible for consumer tax credits for EV purchases.

Cold and hungry: Food inflation bites Canada's north



The price of iced tea at the Northmart grocery store in Iqaluit

Mon, August 8, 2022 
By Rod Nickel

IQALUIT, Nunavut (Reuters) - In Canada's remote north, residents have long paid dearly for food, and rising prices have worsened an already dire situation, exposing the vulnerability of one of the world's biggest exporters of grains and meat.

Communities in Nunavut -- the largest of the three territories that make up Canada's northernmost region -- have no roads to connect them with each other, forcing them to rely on fresh food airlifts twice each week. Permafrost and freezing temperatures nearly year-round make growing crops impractical.

Supply chain disruptions driven by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have worsened food insecurity in poor countries globally. Nunavut's experience shows it has taken a toll on poor regions of even rich nations like Canada, which is the No.3 exporter of wheat and pork.

In stores in Nunavut's capital Iqaluit recently, a bag of cherries sold for C$21 ($16.34), and a six-pack of bottled water cost C$19 - both about double the cost in southern Canada. A 12-pack of soft drink cans sold for C$27, triple the price in the south.

Iqaluit resident Nathaniel Chouinard, 35, says he used to spend C$500 every two weeks to feed his family of six. Since January, he has been spending C$150 more every two weeks.

"I compensate by working more hours," said Chouinard, who works two jobs in security and information technology. "I’m spending less time with my family."

The Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit, a soup kitchen that offers free meals to those in need, says by June this year it had served 20,000 meals - the number served up in all of 2021.

"Food insecurity in the north was already called the longest-lasting public health emergency in Canadian history," said Rachel Blais, Qajuqturvik's executive director.

"The sharp increase in demand we've seen in the last seven months is alarming."

Nunavut's Family Services Minister Margaret Nakashuk said hunger was hampering the ability of children to learn in school and fueling crime, especially break-ins.

'GETTING WORSE'

It is difficult to quantify how much food prices have risen in the north this year. Statistics Canada's measurement of inflation in the northern territories is limited, only assessing price increases in the three main cities and not breaking out individual components like food and fuel.

Iqaluit's consumer price index has doubled since the start of this year, hitting 4.3% in June and well above the Bank of Canada's 2% target. That is well below Canada's national inflation rate of 8.1%, mostly because Nunavut's government made bulk purchases of fuel before prices spiked.

The region has long struggled with food sufficiency. According to a 2020 Statistics Canada study, 57% of households in Nunavut dealt with food insecurity in 2017-2018, the highest level among provinces and territories in the country. Food insecurity is defined as a household lacking money to buy the variety or quantity of food it needs.

Residents benefit from the Nutrition North federal food subsidy, which lowers the price of certain foods in some northern communities. But that is failing to reduce inequality, says Qajuqturvik's Blais.

The region is also unable to directly reap the benefits of having waters swimming with fish. More than 95% of the turbot and shrimp caught offshore are exported because the territory lacks both a deepwater port to offload its catch as well as research to identify economic fishing locations closer to shore, said Brian Burke, executive director of the Nunavut Fisheries Association.

The Canadian government has promised C$40 million to build Nunavut's first deepwater port, but that is a few years away.

Blais, the soup kitchen director, said there is also concern among people in Nunavut that stores may be charging too much.

North West Co, one of the biggest grocers in northern Canada, last year reported profit that was up 82.5% from its 2019 level. However, that reflects consumers buying more during the pandemic and the company's profit ratios are in line with those of southern grocery chains, said Mike Beaulieu, vice president of Canadian store operations at North West.

Regulations to cut down on overpackaging and lengthen expiry dates could help, since Nunavut's biggest additional cost is flying in food, Beaulieu said.

For example, a third of a box of cereal is often just air and certain foods carry longer best-before dates than needed, he said.

Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell said he doesn't blame food companies.

"It's really expensive to do business here," he said. "It is definitely getting worse."

($1 = 1.2849 Canadian dollars)

(Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa, editing by Deepa Babington)

SEE

WHY THE NORTH NEEDS AIRSHIPS

AIRSHIP

 

Canada’s Oil Province Will Soon Be A Renewable Energy Leader

By Rystad Energy - Aug 08, 2022, 

• Canada’s renewable energy capacity is set to climb from 19.6 GW in 2021 to 45 GW in 2025, with the majority of the new additions taking place in Alberta.
• 
  
• While Alberta is the center of Canada’s fossil fuel industry, it is set to also become the country’s largest source of clean energy, outpacing Ontario.
• 
  
• Alberta’s unregulated power market, abundant natural resources, and skilled energy workforce make it a prime location for new projects.

The Canadian province of Alberta, home of the country’s oil and gas sector for decades, is set to undergo a renewable energy capacity surge in the coming years, attracting investments given its vast natural resources and favorable regulatory landscape.

The country’s total renewables capacity is expected to grow from 19.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2021 to almost 45 GW in 2025, driven primarily by growth in onshore wind and solar energy projects. This is not surprising for a country whose power mix is predominantly hydropower-based, but the region leading the charge is surprising.

The bulk of these additions is set to take place in the western province of Alberta – known as the home of the Canadian fossil fuel industry – which today only holds about 3 GW of renewable capacity. Significant large-scale projects in the region are scheduled to come online this year that will push Alberta’s capacity to close to 10 GW before 2023. That total will double again by 2025, reaching almost 21 GW, nearly half of the country’s total.

This rapid growth will see Alberta race ahead of Canada’s other provinces and take the top spot in the country’s green table, outpacing Ontario – the current leader – with almost double the power generation capacity.

“Canada is no stranger to renewables, but Alberta has been a minor player until now. That’s about to change. The region’s unregulated power market, minimal regulatory hurdles and abundant natural resources make it an attractive prospect for developers, in addition to an existing workforce of industry professionals increasingly eager to adapt to green energy. Other provinces may want to follow suit if they have ambitions to attract lucrative green investments,” says Geoff Hebertson, renewables analyst with Rystad Energy.

Why Alberta?

The intentions of Alberta’s decision-makers have been clear for some time, with an ambitious net-zero goal by 2035, 15 years ahead of the national target of 2050, and local authorities have taken concrete steps to achieve this objective. The province has an unregulated power market, similar to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which regulates the US state’s grid. This has allowed private investors to seek green portfolios and build capacity faster than in other provinces. However, this can create supply issues during periods of extreme demand, as witnessed during recent freezes and heatwaves in Texas. The province will therefore need to ensure enough system flexibility to support the intermittency of renewable power generation. Although unlikely in the short term, if all gas generation capacity is removed to hit carbon neutrality goals, substantial utility-scale batteries will be required to back up the system.

Alberta’s electricity system is unique as companies can ink deals directly with private power producers to buy a set amount of electricity each year, either for use or for offset credits. This is attractive for fossil fuel companies looking to offset their emissions from existing operations in the province. The financial security provided by those contracts helps producers build out more renewable projects with fewer market risks, while purchasers get cheap renewable energy or credits to meet internal or external emissions goals.

In contrast to Alberta, Ontario, the current renewables capacity leader in Canada, is unlikely to see any significant growth before at least 2025. The province’s lucrative feed-in tariff (FiT) allowed for a massive expansion of developments initially, but it expired in 2016. The introduction of corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Alberta – a contract for a private operator to sell energy straight to the local grid at a set price – has incentivized developers.

Alberta may not be the largest market for renewables capacity currently, but the province’s green portfolio is expected to reach nearly 20 GW of installed solar and wind capacity by 2025. That will far outpace Ontario, which will slip to the No. 2 slot, with only 9 GW.

Canada’s power mix

The Canadian power mix has been dominated by hydropower generation for almost a century, with the first dams constructed in the 1920s. Hydropower has contributed between 60% and 70% of the country’s power needs since 2010, with the remainder predominantly supplied by coal, gas, and nuclear. Total onshore wind generation has grown in recent years but remains relatively insignificant, contributing only about 5% in 2021. With the wind capacity additions expected to come online by the end of 2025, that contribution will jump to almost 9%, or 60 terawatt hours (TWh). Conversely, coal’s role in the power mix is set to drop as the country pushes out the carbon-heavy fuel. In 2010, coal-fired generation provided nearly 80 TWh of power annually, but that gradually dropped to around 30 TWh last year. By 2025, coal is expected to contribute 14 TWh, just 2% of the nation’s power needs.

By Rystad Energy

Johnson steps on political land mine with Social Security, Medicare comments



Alexander Bolton
Tue, August 9, 2022

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a stalwart Senate ally of former President Trump, is facing fresh uncertainty in his race for reelection after telling a podcast last week that Social Security and Medicare should be classified as discretionary spending, with Congress authorized to set their budgets every year.

Johnson had been cruising to reelection in a favorable political climate for Republicans, who expected to take control of the House and possibly the Senate as well.

But now Johnson is on the defensive as Democrats have political ammo to claim that he wants to cut the two popular entitlement programs, a strategy they used effectively against Republicans in the past.

Johnson has landed in hot water before for making provocative comments on conservative media, most notably when he said he didn’t feel threatened by protesters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because he believed “those were people who love this country” while adding that he would have been “concerned” if they were Black Lives Matter protesters instead.

Now Johnson is being asked to defend his comments to “The Regular Joe Show” podcast calling for Congress to review and approve the annual budgets of Medicare and Social Security, instead of letting them rise automatically, which they do as mandatory spending programs.

Johnson is doubling down on his bold position, arguing that if Social Security and Medicare are left on autopilot, they will run out of money at some point.

And he says he’s been calling for making Medicare and Social Security discretionary programs subject to an annual budget for years.

“I’ve been saying for as long as I’ve been here that we should transfer everything, put everything on budget so we have to consider it if every year. I’ve said that consistently, it’s nothing new,” he said. “I want to save it, I want to fix it. Right now we’re whistling past the graveyard.”

The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, for example, is due to become insolvent by 2028.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) last month discussed increasing taxes on people who earn more than $400,000 annually in pass-through income to extend the solvency of the hospital fund until 2031, but the talks fell through.

Johnson said it’s a “lie” and a “distortion” that he wants to put the programs on the “chopping block” as Democrats claim.

“I never said that, I never inferred that in any way shape or form. What I’d like to do is save the programs and the only way to save the programs is if you take a look at them,” he said.

He says Congress needs to look at the solvency of the programs over the next decade and longer instead of let them continue to mount up debt.

Democrats say this is the political gift they needed to swing the momentum in a challenging Senate race that Johnson was favored to win.

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) said Johnson has stepped on a political land mine.

“These are the programs that have taken several generations of seniors out of poverty,” she said.

Baldwin noted that Johnson told Breitbart News Daily in an interview earlier this year that he viewed a 12-point plan unveiled by fellow Republican Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) calling for all federal legislation to sunset after five years as “a positive thing.”

Johnson said he agreed with “most of it.”

“Not only has he made those references,” Baldwin said, referring to “The Regular Joe Show” podcast. “But back when Rick Scott put out his Republican agenda, which sort of abolished both of them and start over, Sen. Johnson had voiced support for that.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tried to tie Johnson’s comments to House Republican candidates.

“Putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every year is no way to help working families — it is a way to devastate them. Unfortunately, most House Republicans agree with Sen. Johnson,” Pelosi’s office said on its blog.

Former longtime Fox News anchor Chris Wallace called Johnson’s remarks “suicidal politics.”

Ben Nuckels, a Wisconsin-based Democratic strategist, said Johnson had grabbed the “third rail” of American politics by calling for annual congressional review of Social Security and Medicare spending.

“Ron Johnson never misses an opportunity to stick his foot in his mouth. Johnson opened up this big new line of attack on his radical, extreme positions on Social Security that voters 55 and over are going to be acutely aware of,” he said.

Nuckels projected that campaign attacks focused on Johnson’s comments about Social Security and Medicare are going to resonate with older voters, who tend to show up to the polls more reliably in midterm election years.

“When you have 60 to 65 percent of the electorate above the age of 50, that’s going to be a big problem for him,” he said. “Johnson grabbed the third rail with both hands on that one.”

A Senate Republican strategist said Johnson’s latest comments on Social Security and Medicare are “not good from a campaign perspective.”

But the source pointed out that Johnson still has a good chance of winning reelection because President Biden’s approval rating has plummeted in Wisconsin and his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, is “a weak candidate.”

“I’m not worried about Johnson,” the strategist said. “Democrats will have to spend in other races to protect incumbents so that could be enough to put Ron John over the top.”

Other Senate Republicans are distancing themselves from Johnson’s call for Congress to have more discretionary authority over Medicare and Social Security spending.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said he did not know of any other Republicans who want to convert Social Security and Medicare to discretionary spending.

“I have not heard other members talk about that,” he said. “I think the assumption always has been that those are programs, when you look at the overall federal spending, that are part of mandatory [spending.] They’re considered entitlements. … If you’re eligible and you qualify, you get the benefits.”

One notable exception is Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who called for sunsetting all federal legislation in five years as part of his “Rescue America Plan.”

“If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” Scott said.

Democrats immediately attacked Scott and tried to tie his plan to Republicans running for the Senate and the House, a tactic made somewhat easier by Scott’s chairmanship of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.

The political risk Scott’s plan posed to Senate Republican candidates prompted Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to rebuke Scott at a leadership meeting earlier this year.

McConnell told reporters that he, not the Florida senator, would be setting the agenda if Republicans took over the majority.

“We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda,” McConnell said in March.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/02/social-insecurity-phony-pension-crisis.html

SO IT BEGINS; NEW GILEAD 

Nebraska woman charged with helping daughter have abortion


FILE - Protesters line the street around the front of the Nebraska State Capitol during an Abortion Rights Rally held on July 4, 2022, in Lincoln, Neb. A Nebraska woman has been charged in early June with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.

 (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More

JOSH FUNK
Tue, August 9, 2022 

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — A Nebraska woman has been charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.

The prosecutor handling the case said it's the first time he has charged anyone for illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restriction that was passed in 2010. Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, states weren’t allowed to enforce abortion bans until the point at which a fetus is considered viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks.

In one of the Facebook messages, Jessica Burgess, 41, tells her then 17-year-old daughter that she has obtained abortion pills for her and gives her instructions on how to take them to end the pregnancy.

The daughter, meanwhile, “talks about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body," a detective wrote in court documents. “I will finally be able to wear jeans,” she says in one of the messages. Law enforcement authorities obtained the messages with a search warrant, and detailed some of them in court documents.

In early June, the mother and daughter were only charged with a single felony for removing, concealing or abandoning a body, and two misdemeanors: concealing the death of another person and false reporting. It wasn't until about a month later, after investigators reviewed the private Facebook messages, that they added the felony abortion-related charges against the mother. The daughter, who is now 18, is being charged as an adult at prosecutors' request.

Burgess' attorney didn’t immediately respond to a message Tuesday, and the public defender representing the daughter declined to comment.

When first interviewed, the two told investigators that the teen had unexpectedly given birth to a stillborn baby in the shower in the early morning hours of April 22. They said they put the fetus in a bag, placed it in a box in the back of their van, and later drove several miles north of town, where they buried the body with the help of a 22-year-old man.

The man, whom The Associated Press is not identifying because he has only been charged with a misdemeanor, has pleaded no contest to helping bury the fetus on rural land his parents own north of Norfolk in northeast Nebraska. He's set to be sentenced later this month.

In court documents, the detective said the fetus showed signs of “thermal wounds” and that the man told investigators the mother and daughter did burn it. He also wrote that the daughter confirmed in the Facebook exchange with her mother that the two would “burn the evidence afterward." Based on medical records, the fetus was more than 23 weeks old, the detective wrote.

Burgess later admitted to investigators to buying the abortion pills “for the purpose of instigating a miscarriage.”

At first, both mother and daughter said they didn’t remember the date when the stillbirth happened, but according to the detective, the daughter later confirmed the date by consulting her Facebook messages. After that he sought the warrant, he said.

Madison County Attorney Joseph Smith told the Lincoln Journal Star that he’s never filed charges like this related to performing an abortion illegally in his 32 years as the county prosecutor. He didn't immediately respond to a message from the AP on Tuesday.

The group National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which supports abortion rights, found 1,331 arrests or detentions of women for crimes related to their pregnancy from 2006 to 2020.

In addition to its current 20-week abortion ban, Nebraska tried — but failed — earlier this year to pass a so-called trigger law that would have banned all abortions when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

A Facebook spokesman declined to talk about the details of this case, but the company has said that officials at the social media giant “always scrutinize every government request we receive to make sure it is legally valid.”

Facebook says it will fight back against requests that it thinks are invalid or too broad, but the company said it gave investigators information in about 88% of the 59,996 times when the government requested data in the second half of last year.

ROE WAS ABOUT PRIVACY

Facebook Turned Over Chat Messages Between Mother and Daughter Now Charged Over Abortion


Jim Wilson

Kevin Collier and Minyvonne Burke
Tue, August 9, 2022 

Facebook turned over the chats of a mother and her daughter to Nebraska police after they were served with a warrant as part of an investigation into an illegal abortion, court documents show.

The investigation, which was launched in April before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, is one of the few known instances of Facebook’s turning over information to help law enforcement officials pursue an abortion case — but it is also an example of a scenario that abortion rights experts have warned will be more common as all abortions becomes illegal in many states.

Madison County prosecutors say Jessica Burgess, 41, acquired and gave abortion pills to her daughter, Celeste, who was 17 at the time, and then helped her bury and then rebury the fetus. The Norfolk Daily News first reported the case. The two were charged last month and have pleaded not guilty. A lawyer for the two women didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to a sworn affidavit from Detective Ben McBride of the Norfolk Police Investigations Unit, police started with a tip from a woman who described herself as a friend of Celeste’s who said she saw her take the first pill in April.


Under a Nebraska law enacted before Roe was overturned, abortion is illegal 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized. According to McBride’s affidavit, Burgess had a miscarriage when she was around 23 weeks pregnant, soon after having taken abortion pills.

McBride then applied for and got a warrant in June for access into the digital lives of the mother and her daughter, seizing six smartphones and seven laptops and compelling Facebook to turn over chats between them.

The alleged chats, published in court documents seen by NBC News, show a user named Jessica telling a user named Celeste about “What i ordered last month” and instructing her to take two pills 24 hours apart.

Norfolk police didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Facebook stores most user information in plaintext on its servers, meaning the company can access it if it is compelled to do so with a warrant. The company routinely complies with law enforcement requests.

Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.

Facebook Messenger offers end-to-end encryption, meaning chats between two users will be visible only on users’ phones and aren’t readable by Facebook or any government entity that makes a legal request to the company. But the option is available only to people using the Messenger app on mobile devices, and messages are encrypted only after users select the option to mark chats as “secret.”

“I know from prior training and experience, and conversations with other seasoned criminal investigators, that people involved in criminal activity frequently have conversations regarding their criminal activities through various social networking sites, i.e. Facebook,” McBride said in his warrant application.

Prosecutors charged Jessica Burgess with three felonies and two misdemeanors and Celeste Burgess with a felony and two misdemeanors. All charges were related to performing an abortion, concealing a body and providing false information.

Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that advocates for reproductive rights policy, said the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June to overturn Roe v. Wade most likely didn’t change Nebraska law enforcement’s legal ability to bring the charges, as the state hasn’t changed its law since then and the case began in April.

But it’s the type of case abortion law experts expect to see more of in a post-Roe world, she said.

“The police could have decided not to charge them, but it looks like the police are throwing the book at the mother and daughter, charging them with everything from criminal abortion to false reporting,” Nash said. “This is the kind of response we are expecting to the Dobbs decision and states’ banning abortion.”

Jake Laperruque, the deputy director of surveillance at the Center of Democracy and Technology, a think tank that promotes digital rights, said tech companies that store plaintext information about users who intend to have abortions are likely to continue to be served warrants as more states prosecute abortion-related crimes.

“This is going to keep happening to tech companies that store significant amounts of communications and data,” Laperruque said.

“If companies don’t want to end up repeatedly handing over data for abortion investigations, they need to rethink their practices on data collection, storage and encryption,” he said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

WW3.0

Turkey sends new drill ship to eastern Mediterranean

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara did not need to "seek permission from anyone" to drill in the region. Greece and Cyprus accuse Turkey of illegally exploring for gas deposits in their territory.

The Abdulhamid Han, named after an Ottoman sultan, is set to drill for gas in the eastern Mediterranean

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday inaugurated the country's newest drilling ship that he said would be sent to an area northwest of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.

The vessel, known as the Abdulhamid Han, is Turkey's largest undersea hydrocarbon drill ship. 

What do we know about the mission?

Erdogan said the ship would begin drilling at the Yorukler-1 well, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) off the coast of Gazipasa, in Turkey's southwestern Antalya province.

The country's other drill ships — Fatih, Kanuni and Yavuz — are operating in the Black Sea where Turkey has discovered natural gas reserves. All four ships are named after Ottoman sultans.

Turkey is almost entirely reliant on imports to meet its energy needs. Rising global energy prices have hindered Erdogan's government from reaching its goal of achieving a budget surplus. Turkey imported around 45% of its natural gas last year from Russia.

Erdogan called the Abdulhamid Han a "symbol of Turkey's new vision in the area of energy."

"The sooner we can increase our natural gas and oil resources, which have turned into weapons in the global economic crisis, the more advantage we will gain in this critical process," Turkey's president said.

"It will help us both reduce our energy dependency and close our current account deficit."

The Abdulhamid Han set off from Antalya and is heading towards an area northwest of Cyprus

'We don't need to seek permission from anyone'

While the area initially designated for the ship is not in disputed waters, Erdogan said the Abdulhamid Han will continue to search for gas until it finds it, potentially leading it to areas claimed by Cyprus.

Turkey and Cyprus have for years been embroiled in a dispute over maritime borders, and the EU has imposed sanctions on Ankara over drilling off the island country.

"Our exploration and drilling in the Mediterranean is within our own sovereign dominion," Erdogan said at the inauguration ceremony.

"Neither the puppets nor the ones who hold their strings will be able to prevent us from getting our rights in the Mediterranean," the Turkish president declared, in an apparent reference to Greece, Cyprus and Western allies.

"We don't need to seek permission or ratification from anyone," Erdogan added. "We will take what is ours."

NATO partner Greece also accuses Turkey of illegally exploring for gas deposits off of Greek islands. The Turkish government rejects the accusations, saying that Greek islands near the Turkish coast should not be used when defining maritime borders.

In 2020, Turkey sent a seismic survey ship escorted by warships to an area in the eastern Mediterranean to which Greece claims exclusive rights. Athens later sent its own warships, and the two countries conducted military exercises in a show of force.

sdi/nm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters

Turkey's new drill ship to operate outside

disputed waters in Mediterranean

Turkish President Erdogan attends the launch of Turkey's new drill ship Abdul hamid Han

Tue, August 9, 2022 

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey resumed its hydrocarbon drilling operations in the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday after a two year hiatus, though President Tayyip Erdogan said its new drill ship would operate outside waters also claimed by Cyprus.

The Abdulhamid Han, Turkey's fourth drill ship, will operate 55 kilometres off the Gazipasa region in the southern coastal province of Antalya, Erdogan said.

"The survey and drilling work we are conducting in the Mediterranean are within our sovereign territory. We do not need to receive permission or consent from anyone for this," he said, speaking at a ceremony to launch the ship in Turkey's coastal Mersin province.

The launch comes at a time when long-running tensions between Turkey and Greece have risen again, with Erdogan accusing Athens of arming islands in the Aegean Sea that have a demilitarised status. Athens rejects this.


Natural gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean in the past decade have made the region a viable alternative energy source for Europe, but also exposed disputes between neighbouring countries in the region over rights to the resources.

A Greek government spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday that Athens is monitoring the situation carefully.

"We need to be vigilant ... We've always been doing what we have to do to have stability in our region and to fully defend international law and our own sovereign rights," spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou said.

Ankara said the 238-metre (780.84 ft) Abdulhamid Han is the largest and the most technologically advanced deep sea drilling ship in its survey and exploration fleet. It can drill down more than 12,000 metres.

Turkey has not sent a drill ship to the eastern Mediterranean since the withdrawal of the Yavuz drill ship from contested waters in September 2020.

The Yavuz, Fatih and Kanuni drill ships have been operating in the Black Sea, where Turkey discovered a natural gas reserve with a volume of 540 billion cubic metres.

Turkey is almost completely reliant on imports to meet its energy needs and rising global energy prices have derailed the government's plan to flip its current account deficit to a surplus.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen, Ezgi Erkoyun and Can Sezer, additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)

Brazil: WHO condemns attacks on monkeys over pox fears

Brazilian local media have reported several instances of attacks on monkeys — including an incident where 10 monkeys were poisoned at a nature reserve in Sao Paulo state — as fears of spread of monkeypox grow.

Dozens of monkey species live in Brazil

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday decried increasing attacks on monkeys over fears of spread of monkeypox in Brazil.

"What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans," Margaret Harris, the spokeswoman for the WHO, told reporters in Geneva.

Harris's comments came after Brazilian news website, G1, reported Sunday that 10 monkeys had been poisoned in less than a week in Sao Jose do Rio Preto city in southeastern Sao Paulo state.

Harris said that while the disease can spread from animals to humans, the recent outbreak is between humans only.

"People certainly should not attack the animals," she said. 

Similar incidents were also reported in other cities, with people attacking monkeys by throwing stones or poisoning them, according to local media reports.

Monkeypox cases

Brazil has more than 1700 cases of monkeypox, according to figures from the WHO. One person died from the disease on July 29, according to Brazil's Health Ministry.

Monkeypox, caused by monkeypox virus, is transmitted from one person to another through droplets, contaminated objects and close contact with an infected person, according to the WHO.

So far, Europe has recorded around 13,912 confirmed cases, according to figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. 

Since May, nearly 90 countries have reported more than 29,000 monkeypox cases. The WHO classified the outbreak of the once-rare disease as a global health emergency in July.

rm/wd (AP, AFP)