STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE
US opts to not rebuild renowned Puerto Rico telescope

The National Science Foundation has announced it will not rebuild a renowned radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which was one of the world’s largest until it collapsed nearly two years ago

By DÁNICA COTO

 Associated Press
October 13, 2022

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The National Science Foundation announced Thursday that it will not rebuild a renowned radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which was one of the world’s largest until it collapsed nearly two years ago.

Instead, the agency issued a solicitation for the creation of a $5 million education center at the site that would promote programs and partnerships related to science, technology, engineering and math. It also seeks the implementation of a research and workforce development program, with the center slated to open next year in the northern mountain town of Arecibo where the telescope was once located.

The solicitation does not include operational support for current infrastructure at the site that is still in use, including a 12-meter radio telescope or the Lidar facility, which is used to study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere to analyze cloud cover and precipitation data.

The decision was mourned by scientists around the world who used the telescope at the Arecibo Observatory for years to search for asteroids, planets and extraterrestrial life. The 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) dish also was featured in the Jodie Foster film “Contact” and the James Bond movie “GoldenEye.”

The reflector dish and the 900-ton platform hanging 450 feet above it previously allowed scientists to track asteroids headed to Earth, conduct research that led to a Nobel Prize and determine if a planet is potentially habitable.



“We understand how much the site has meant to the community,” said Sean Jones, assistant director for directorate of mathematical and physical sciences at NSF. “If you’re a radio astronomer, you’ve probably spent some time of your career at Arecibo.”

But all research abruptly ended when an auxiliary cable snapped in August 2020, tearing a 100-foot hole in the dish and damaging the dome above it. A main cable broke three months later, prompting the NSF to announce in November 2020 that it was closing the telescope because the structure was too unstable.

Experts suspect that a possible manufacturing error caused the cable to snap, but NSF officials said Thursday that the investigation is still ongoing.

Jones said in a phone interview that the decision to not rebuild the telescope comes in part because the U.S. government has other radar facilities that can do part of the mission that Arecibo once did. He added that the NSF also envisions a five-year maintenance contract to keep the site open, which would cost at least $1 million a year.

“This is a pivotal time. The education component is very important,” said James Moore, assistant director for education and human resource directorate at NSF.

He said by phone that one of the agency’s priorities is to make STEM more accessible and inclusive and that the proposed education center would fill that need.

“It’s a way to augment some of the things that young people are getting in their schools or not getting,” he said.

FRASER INSTITUTE FAIL

Nearly half of federal budget deficit during pandemic not related to COVID spending

“You could argue that part of the reason for the larger deficit was that federal revenues were down during the pandemic and spending up”

Bryan Passifiume - National Post

A health care worker guides a woman wearing a mask outside of St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic.© Provided by National Post

As Canada set new records for government spending during COVID-19, a newly released report suggests nearly half of the spending was not related to the pandemic.

Authored by Lakehead University Economics Professor Livio Di Matteo for the Fraser Institute, the paper — entitled Storm Without End: The Fiscal Impact of COVID-19 on Canada and the Provinces — says federal spending grew by 73 per cent in 2020/21 to $644.2 billion.

That number declined into the next fiscal year, falling 21 per cent to $508.2 billion in 2021/22.

In 2020/21, the report says, the federal government debt grew by around 41 per cent, and 12.4 per cent, to $1.3 trillion, in 2021/22.

“You could argue that part of the reason for the larger deficit was that federal revenues were down during the pandemic and spending up,” Di Matteo said.

“But if you look at the federal revenue performance, it was down about 5 per cent in 2021, but started to rebound quite dramatically.”

Estimates for 2021/22, which Di Matteo said have yet to be finalized, suggest a 17 per cent increase.

Health spending saw an estimated increase of nearly 13 per cent between 2019 and 2020, the report reads — a rate of increase Di Matteo said was over triple the established health care spending growth rate since 2015, and a boost not seen in over three decades.

During the pandemic, around 60 per cent of the federal budget deficit was directly related to the pandemic, largely both federal health spending and related transfers to the provinces, as well as income support programs.

This, the report indicates, suggests a permanent, long-term spending increase.

Projections released late last year by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CHI) suggested the spike in pandemic health spending — expected to exceed $308 billion by the end of 2021 — could put hamper efforts by provinces to rebuild their health care networks post-COVID.

Dr. Katharine Smart, 

president of the Canadian Medical Association, told The Canadian Press in November that provincial health care systems haven’t kept up with these historic increases in health spending, comparing the problem as an out-of-control freight train.

But what impact does this have on Canada’s economic future?

A looming longer-term consequence, he said, is the impact on the federal debt.

“You’re looking at a debt to GDP ratio going from about 33 to 50 per cent, and for the time being a lot of that is locked in at relatively low interest rates,” he said.

But as that debt starts to turn over and new debt accrues, that could lead to higher interest rates and a subsequent increased cost in servicing that debt.

While a great many factors go into a rise in inflation, the increased spending is certainly having an impact, Di Matteo said.

“Inflation is also a function of the supply chain disruptions, the w ar in Ukraine and u ltra-low interest rates still present, so that’s a complicated picture,” he said.

THE FRASER INSTITUTE IS A BIG BUSINESS RIGHT WING THINK TANK LIKE THE CATO INSTITUTE IN THE U$A

CANADIAN BUYOUT

Westinghouse sale signals arrival of a new nuclear age

Brandon Vigliarolo - Yesterday - The Register

Energy granddad wants in on the next generation of atomic tech

Uranium fuel producer Cameco Corp and investment firm Brookfield Renewable Partners intend to buy Westinghouse Electric Company in a bid to accelerate a nuclear power resurgence. …

The deal will cost the pair (and Brookfield Renewable's unnamed institutional partners) $7.85 billion, including $4.5 billion in equity and the remainder in assuming the company's debts. Westinghouse president and CEO Patrick Fragman says the agreement kickstarts a new chapter, not only for Westinghouse Electric Company, but for nuclear power as well.

"We are proud to join Brookfield Renewable and Cameco, reaffirming the important role played by Westinghouse and nuclear power in enabling the world's clean energy transition and energy security goals," Fragman said in a statement.

Nuclear power appears to be entering a renaissance phase. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), nuclear power generation needs to more than double by 2050 to help the world meet global warming reduction goals.

The IEA isn't the only group embracing nuclear power – Japan recently reversed its ban on nuclear power after the Fukushima meltdown 11 years ago, clearing the way for shuttered plants to reopen and new ones to be constructed.

Related video: Nuclear Power Stages a Comeback, But Is It Affordable and Safe?

Environmental responsibility aside, Cameco CEO and president Tim Gitzel said that there's never been a better time to get into nuclear, though keep in mind that his organization manufactures uranium fuel for such facilities.

"We're witnessing some of the best market fundamentals we've ever seen in the nuclear energy sector. [It is] becoming increasingly important in a world that prioritizes electrification, decarbonization and energy security," Gitzel said.

Cameco and Brookfield Renewable also talked up the construction of utility-scale and modular nuclear power generators. Smaller reactors are being developed, including a molten salt reactor that can fit on the back of a flatbed semi trailer, or more traditional small modular water reactors.

It's unknown in which direction Cameco and Brookfield plan to take Westinghouse, though the pair did say they were well positioned to "execute on the growing pipeline for extending and uprating nuclear power plants, and service the rising demand" for new smaller reactors – no mention of the type.

Westinghouse Electric Company is currently owned by Brookfield Business Partners, a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable under parent company Brookfield Asset Management.

Brookfield Business purchased Westinghouse Electric Company from Toshiba in 2018 after the latter placed Westinghouse in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in a bid to restructure it. Brookfield said that its management of Westinghouse nearly doubled the company's profitability through restructuring and a refocus of its services.

Westinghouse Electric Company is also independent of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, from which it was spun off in 1999 after Westinghouse (then known as CBS Corp) merged with Viacom and sought to get rid of the last of its industrial enterprises.

The deal is still being negotiated and isn't expected to close until the second half of 2023.

 

®

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

B.C. First Nations seek action on sturgeon deaths, after court blamed declines on dam

VANCOUVER — Three British Columbia First Nations want the provincial and federal governments to live up to a nine-month-old court decision that said there is "overwhelming" evidence a dam on the Nechako River is killing endangered sturgeon.


B.C. First Nations seek action on sturgeon deaths, after court blamed declines on dam© Provided by The Canadian Press

They are highlighting the ruling after scientists asked the public in September for help in solving the mysterious deaths of 11 adult sturgeon found in the Nechako River in central B.C.

The Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship said the fish showed no visible external injuries and their deaths were not caused by disease, chemical exposure, angling or gillnet fisheries.

However, the Nechako First Nations claim mismanagement of the river and the dam reservoir are behind the deaths, saying quick action is needed to protect their rights and the sturgeon, which the court said were in “a decline so severe that the species is currently at risk of imminent extirpation.”


In the 1950s, the B.C. government authorized the Aluminum Company of Canada, now Rio Tinto Alcan, to build the Kenney Dam and a 233-kilometre-long reservoir on the river for hydropower generation to smelt its product.

Two of the Nechako First Nations, the Saik’uz and Stellat’en, sued the governments and Rio Tinto Alcan for the decades of losses to their fisheries, the lands, waters and rights.

The B.C. Supreme Court ruled in January that while Rio Tinto Alcan has complied with every contract it signed and abided by all terms on its water licence, the "failure" came from the governments who settled on insufficient requirements to protect the fish of the Nechako.

The judge ruled the Saik’uz and Stellat’en nations have an Aboriginal right to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes in the Nechako River watershed and that both the provincial and federal governments have an obligation to protect that right.

Justice Nigel Kent said it was a fact that the Kenney Dam's installation and operation were behind the "recruitment failure" of the Nechako white sturgeon, referring to the survival of fish larvae into the juvenile stage.

Sturgeon, with their long snout and shark-like tail, can grow up to six metres long and live for over a century. The Nechako white sturgeon are a distinct population.

Priscilla Mueller, elected chief of Saik’uz First Nation, said the community living along the river has watched water flow decline over the last several years.

“Right now, the Nechako River received less than 30 per cent of the water that it would naturally receive. So, when you look at the river today, the water level is very low. It would be very difficult for the sturgeons to survive in very low water," she said.

“It’s not only affecting the sturgeons, but it’s also affecting our salmon and other fish habitats."

Mueller recalled fishing with her grandparents as a child and said the salmon and sturgeon thrived on the river.

“And now like in Saik’uz, I haven't heard of anybody getting a sturgeon for years since I was a child .… The (Kenney) Dam really affected the river in a big way,” said Mueller.

The Saik’uz, Stellat’en and Nadleh Whut'en First Nations said in a news release that the recent deaths are the “latest blow” to the endangered species, which numbers between 300 and 600.

“Given the population’s conservation status, these mortalities have very serious implications for the Nechako white sturgeon’s ability to recover, and will drive the population closer to extinction,” they said.

The nations have since filed an appeal of the January ruling, seeking a court order for the restoration of flows on the Nechako that would re-establish "the natural functions of the river.”

Mueller said it’s not just in the First Nations’ interests to restore the river — the health of the river would benefit the whole community on the waterway.

The nations said they now look forward to discussions with all parties to create a new water management regime.

Mueller said one of the first steps is to invite Rio Tinto to their community to see who they are and how they live.

"So, for our community, building relationships is very important. And when you think about a relationship, it's not just one-sided. If we were gonna co-manage the river, that means all parties need to be involved,” said Mueller.

The Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship said no more dead sturgeon have recently been observed on the Nechako River, which it saw as a “positive update.”

“We are cautiously optimistic that this mortality event is over. The province is focusing on understanding the cause and what can be done to prevent potential future events," the ministry said in an email statement.

No cause of death was immediately apparent, but analyses and lab tests would continue, with water temperature and oxygen stress studies also underway through a partnership with the University of British Columbia, said the ministry.

"The province understands there is interest from First Nations and stakeholders in a water release facility at the Kenney Dam in the Nechako watershed," the ministry said, adding that it was discussing sturgeon stewardship "to ensure it meets the interests of Nechako First Nations."

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said in a written statement it had been engaged with Indigenous groups, Rio Tinto, B.C. and others in Nechako River white sturgeon recovery initiatives since 2000. A key objective was to ensure Rio Tinto operations “do not impact Nechako white sturgeon and facilitate their recovery.”

Andrew Czornohalan, director of power and projects at Rio Tinto BC Works, said in an email statement that the company is “deeply saddened” by the sturgeons’ deaths and it is working with partners, including the Nechako white sturgeon recovery initiative and the province.

“We are aware of the sturgeon mortality that occurred this summer in the Nechako River and in other rivers in B.C., including the Fraser River. We have offered technical capacity via the water engagement initiative to identify the possible causes of this unprecedented event."

He said the company has contributed over $13 million to the recovery initiative since 2000.

Over the past two years, Rio Tinto has been working with the First Nations and local communities to improve the water flow into the Nechako River while still monitoring for flood risks in Vanderhoof, a city in northern B.C., said Czornohalan.

“We will continue to collaborate with First Nations, governments and other stakeholders to review all aspects of the Nechako Reservoir management process in hopes of improving the health of the river and ensuring Rio Tinto can remain a driver of economic opportunities in B.C.,” said Czornohalan.

He said on top of powering its smelting plant, the dam provides hydropower for around 350,000 residents in B.C.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2022.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FOSSIL FISH 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for STURGEON 

Cryptozoology Part 2: plawiuk — LiveJournal

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for STURGEON FOSSIL FISH

Mexico march puts violence against women, girls in spotlight

Online News EditorOctober 8, 2022

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico, Oct 8 (EFE).- Dozens of women and girls marched through the main streets of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Mexico’s Chiapas state on Saturday to put violence, inequality and discrimination faced by women in the country in the spotlight.

Ahead of International Day of the Girl Child on Oct. 11, the protesters walked to the city’s central park carrying banners and balloons, and white handkerchiefs on their wrists as a symbol of peace.

With slogans such as “I have the right to play without fear,” “Fight for girls” and “We are a girls’ club and we deserve respect,” they expressed their demands for respect and visibility.

The small contingent was also accompanied by a group of children and men who supported the march, with banners that read: “Respect for women” and “Stop discrimination and violence against women,” among others.

Jennifer Haza, director of Melel Xojobal, told EFE that this march is held every year in order to highlight the problems in Chiapas where, she said, 21 percent of girls aged three to 17 years old do not attend school.

She also said that the state has the second-highest number of pregnancies of girls under 15 years of age in the country.

According to statistics from the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships 2021, in Chiapas 20.2 percent of the population of women aged 15 and over have experienced situations of violence at school throughout their lives.

In 2020, Chiapas state had the highest number of pregnancies of girls under 15 years of age in the country with a total of 1,139, equivalent to 95 pregnant girls per month, according to a report from the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico.

The organization also reported that between 2018 and 2022, a total of 1,220 girls aged between one and 17 disappeared, of which 76 percent were aged between 12 and 17 years. EFE

mf/tw

Young Peruvian activists determined to make female voices heard

Online News EditorOctober 11, 2022

By Carla Samon Ros

Lima, Oct 11 (EFE).- Tania and Sofia are a pair of Peruvian teenagers who were born in different parts of that Andean nation yet share a common vision: to protect women from harm and encourage other girls and female adolescents to make themselves heard in a male-dominated society.

Tania’s voice is calm and measured and her body language conveys strength and self-assurance. But an air of tenderness envelops her when she talks about the projects she has carried out in her community in the northwestern region of Piura.

That 17-year-old developed an initiative known as “Education for Pachamama” (Education for Mother Earth) that she explained is aimed at promoting environmental education through talks and workshops.

She also helped create a project to organize her community’s mototaxis – light, three-wheeled motor vehicles similar to Thailand’s “tuk tuks” and Pakistan’s “chand garis.”

“We saw there was a problem with (teenage girls) going out late at night, and we wanted to find a secure space for them so they could get home safely,” Tania, who says she aspires to become a lawyer to “defend those who have no voice,” told Efe, adding that the idea is to create a network for sharing the numbers and WhatsApp contacts of trustworthy mototaxis.

Some 1,120 kilometers (695 miles) south of Piura, Sofia also took it upon herself to transform her community of San Pedro de Carabayllo, part of Lima province, into an area that is “safe for girls.”

Specifically, the organization she belongs to carried out a gender-focused urban audit to locate and reclaim unsafe areas of her community.

“We reclaimed a location that was infested with street sexual harassment” and which targeted a lot of school-aged girls, the 16-year-old told Efe.

Sofia said she was motivated to become an activist in part by the many dinner-table political debates she heard as a young child, as well as by the “stereotypes, violence, machismo and inequalities that go hand-in-hand with being a female adolescent in Peru.”

Tania and Sofia recently met at an event in Lima to mark the International Day of the Girl Child that was organized by Plan International, a development and humanitarian non-governmental organization. While there, they took part in workshops aimed at fostering the political participation of girls and female adolescents.

“Participation is a right, a principle and the basis of other rights. A girl who feels empowered and can have a say in her life … will later exercise a much more powerful citizenship,” Selmira Carreon, Plan International’s technical coordinator for children’s participation and youth mobilization in Peru, told Efe.

According to a study released this month by Plan International, only half of the girls surveyed said it is acceptable for them to be active in their communities, while 10 percent believe women are not qualified to be political leaders and only 25 percent see themselves as potential candidates for political office.

But many others are determined to forge a new reality for women in Peru.

“We can’t talk about equality in a country where those who make the important decisions are mostly men,” Sofia said. “The old and deep-rooted patriarchal, conservative order doesn’t want us in power and in political spaces because they know we’re the ones who are going to bring … an end to inequality.” EFE

csr/mc

Centuries after conquest, indigenous languages survive in Brazil

Online News EditorOctober 12, 2022

By Alba Santandreu

Sao Paulo, Oct 12 (EFE).- More de 175 indigenous languages have endured in Brazil despite centuries of colonization and that legacy is celebrated in a new exhibit that opened here Wednesday.

“Nhe’e Pora: Memory and Transformation” signals the start of the 2022-2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages of Brazil, promoted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Hosted by the Museum of the Portuguese Language in Sao Paulo, Nhe’e Pora (“sacred words” in Guarani) is intended to rescue the history and identity of Brazil’s 300 indigenous peoples.

“During the invasion, the European languages of the colonizers were imposed through practices of physical violence, death threats, torture and prohibition,” exhibit curator Daiara Tukano told EFE.

In the early phase of the conquest, she said, the Portuguese identified Tupi-Guarani as the most widely spoken language in the coastal region and made that tongue the instrument for administering their indigenous subjects and introducing them to Christianity.

Over time, Tupi-Guarani evolved into Nheegatu, which served as a lingua franca for the first three centuries of the colonial era.

But the colonizers eventually abandoned Nheegatu in favor of a policy of forcing the indigenous people to learn Portuguese.

“Each language is a universe, it’s a system of thought,” Tukano said. “We cannot allow our cosmovision and sciences to be diminished and erased for that single Western (system of) thought that is imposed.”

The exhibit includes indigenous artifacts, some from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of Sao Paulo and from the private collection of French-born Lux Boelitz Vidal, one of Brazil’s pre-eminent anthropologists.

Vidal, 94, spent extended periods living with the Xikrin people in the southwestern part of Para state, who now find their way of life threatened by illegal loggers.

Shortly before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vidal, at the urging of the Xikrin, began work on a virtual library comprising all of the knowledge she accumulated over decades.

With the help of a small team, she digitized her files, including more than 100 hours of recordings of music, first-person histories and myths passed down through the generations.

“It’s a library that serves the youth. When they listened for the first time, they said: ‘it’s pure Xikrin,'” Isabelle Giannini, Vidal’s daughter and the coordinator of the project, recounted to EFE.

as/dr

Rescuers recall dangerous, complex Miracle of the Andes mission

Online News EditorOctober 12, 2022

By Meritxell Freixas

San Fernando, Chile, Oct 12 (EFE).- Fifty years after the Andes flight disaster, the first nurse who treated the 16 survivors, one of the co-pilots who rescued 14 members of the group and the journalist who conducted an exclusive interview with the other two spoke to Efe about the complex and dangerous rescue mission.

That two-day operation began on Dec. 22, 1972, more than two months after Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a chartered flight traveling from Montevideo to Santiago with 45 crew and passengers, including 19 members of an Uruguayan rugby union team, crashed in the Andes mountains on Oct. 13 due to pilot error.

The mission got under way amid heavy cloud cover that would have made any air rescue unthinkable under normal circumstances.

But it proceeded due to the urgency of retrieving the group, who had survived for 72 days on a glacier at an elevation of 3,570 meters (11,710 feet) in the remote Andes of far western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile.

After waiting more than an hour for the fog to dissipate, the search-and-rescue teams headed to Los Maitenes ranch to meet with Roberto Canessa and Fernando “Nando” Parrado, two of the survivors who had set off on a days-long hike from the site of the wreck and had been found by a Chilean arriero (muleteer).

“We didn’t believe they were the Urguayans because we’d carried out more than 100 missions searching for them,” Ramon Canales, a co-pilot of one of the helicopters that took part in the mission, told Efe in the central Chilean city of San Fernando.

“If it were true that they were the Uruguayans, that would be international news. What better story to cover than that one for someone who’s starting out?” said Alipio Vera, a journalist who was just 27 years old at the time and was the first to interview Canessa and Parrado at the ranch.

Two helicopters lifted off from Los Maitenes in search of the fuselage of the crashed plane. Parrado was on board one of the choppers and was tasked with guiding the rescuers, but he became disoriented when the helicopter had to take a different approach to the peak.

Parrado recalled though that an avalanche that had killed several members of the group had left a coffee-colored patch high up on the mountain, the co-pilot said, recalling the elation they experienced when they spotted that brown-colored slab of rock and shortly afterward the fuselage and the 14 remaining survivors.

Canales took a photo of the men – their arms raised in the air and shouting into the sky – that became the iconic image of an ordeal and miraculous survival that drew international headlines.

“It gave me an inner joy that’s difficult to describe,” Jose Bravo, the first nurse to treat the survivors, told Efe of the moment the rescue team came upon the crashed plane.

Six people were evacuated the first day, while the other eight were taken to safety a day later. Bravo remained on the glacier with the second group.

“Night fell and we all went inside the plane to tell jokes and sing … They asked us what they could eat in Chile at that time, what fruit there was. The guys were crying. They were happy,” the nurse recalled during an interview in San Fernando.

The following morning, the mission was completed on a sunny, windless day. “When we climbed into the helicopter, we hugged one another, and seeing them cry we also cried,” Bravo said. EFE

mfm/mc

Lula campaigns in Rio slums; Bolsonaro courts Brazil’s Catholics

Online News EditorOctober 12, 2022

 

Rio de Janeiro, Oct 12 (EFE). Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took advantage of Wednesday’s national holiday to stump for votes ahead of the Oct. 30 presidential runoff.

The right-wing incumbent went to the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in Sao Paulo state, where thousands of the Catholic faithful gathered to honor Brazil’s patron saint on her feast day.

While former two-term president Lula, the candidate of the center-left Workers Party (PT), campaigned in Complexo do Alemao, the largest of Rio de Janeiro’s “favelas,” or shantytowns.

Lula bested Bolsonaro by a margin of 48 percent to 43 percent in the first round of voting on Oct. 2, but fell short of the 50 percent-plus-one needed to avoid a runoff.

Millions of Brazilians climbed out of poverty during Lula’s 2003-2011 tenure as president and the giant South American nation managed to get off the United Nations Hunger Map – only to return to it this year.

“The people will go back to eating three times a day, will go back to having formal employment,” the 76-year-old who got his start in politics as a leader of the steelworkers union told the throng who joined him Wednesday on a walking tour of Complexo do Alemao.

Lula vowed to show “the elite who govern the country that once again, a steelworker will straighten out” Brazil.

The president, meanwhile, was greeted at the Aparecida Shrine with a mixture of applause and jeering, as many pilgrims viewed his visit as cynical opportunism.

Bolsonaro arrived at the basilica after taking part in the inauguration of an Evangelical church in Minas Gerais state.

The incumbent, who often proclaims, “Brazil above all, God above everybody,” enjoys support from 63 percent of the roughly 30 percent of the population who identify as Evangelical, while 60 percent of professed Catholics prefer Lula.

Brazil’s Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement this week denouncing the “intensification of the exploitation of faith as a path to win votes in the second round.”

Yet a member of the conference, Aparecida Archbishop Orlando Brandes, marked the saint’s day with a thinly veiled endorsement of Lula.

Bread, peace and brotherhood are “what Brazil needs today,” Brandes said, invoking one of Lula’s slogans without mentioning the candidate by name.

And Lula’s campaign took the opportunity of publishing a letter from the candidate promising that all religions will be respected if he returns to the presidency.

“Religion is a sacred and fundamental right and it must be respected by all of us,” he wrote.

“As the Catholic that I am, on this day that is so special for Brazil, I want to ask, through the mediation of Our Lady of Aparecida, that God bless us to be able to construct a democratic, just, independent and sovereign nation,” Lula said. EFE mat/dr

 Chinese chip bosses protest ‘wrong’ US restrictions

Online News EditorOctober 13, 2022

Shanghai, China, Oct 13 (EFE).- Chinese semiconductor employers said they’re opposed Thursday to restrictions announced by the United States on the purchase of chips by companies or individuals from the country, the official China Daily newspaper reported.

In a statement, the China Association of the Semiconductor Industry said this ban, announced at the end of last week, represents an interference in international trade.

“We hope that the US government corrects its incorrect practices in a timely manner,” said the organization, which called for “seeking consensus.”

Likewise, the Association urged Washington to “return to the framework of the consultation mechanism on international trade” sponsored by the World Semiconductor Council and the Assembly of Governments and Authorities on Semiconductors.

On Friday, the US Department of Commerce denounced a new order that will prevent Chinese companies or individuals from accessing microchips or components manufactured in the US, under threat of inclusion on its list of sanctions for foreign companies that do not comply with the measure.

The announcement was a heavy blow to companies such as Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, which plunged 8.3 percent Tuesday on the stock market, falling to its lowest listing levels since mid-2020.

However, the world’s second largest producer, South Korea’s SK Hynix, announced Wednesday that Washington will exempt it from complying with the measure for one year to keep its operations in China intact. This exemption, according to sources quoted Thursday by Japanese newspaper Nikkei, was also received by TSMC.

According to US authorities, who recently approved a law to stimulate the production of microchips in their territory, China is using its technological advances to spy on its own citizens and develop advanced military technology.

For its part, Beijing called the measure an “intimidation” which “undermines the rules of the market and the international economic and commercial order” and “endangers the stability of industrial supply chains.”

In the face of the open trade war with Washington since March 2018 and the growing diplomatic tensions, China has announced various measures and plans to boost the national semiconductor industry, in which it continues to depend on foreign manufacturers. EFE

vec/lds