Amazon loses 10% of its vegetation in nearly four decades

"The losses have been enormous, virtually irreversible and with no expectation of a turnaround."

ASSOCIATED PRESS / December 2, 2022

Cattle graze on land recently burned and deforested by cattle farmers near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Amazon region has lost 10% of its native vegetation, mostly tropical rainforest, in almost four decades, an area roughly the size of Texas, a new report says.

From 1985 to 2021, the deforested area surged from 490,000 square kilometers (190,000 square miles) to 1,250,000 square kilometers (482,000 square miles), unprecedented destruction in the Amazon, according to the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information, or Raisg.

The numbers are calculated from annual satellite monitoring since 1985 from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana. The report is a collaboration between Raisg and MapBiomas, a network of Brazilian nonprofits, universities and technology startups.

“The losses have been enormous, virtually irreversible and with no expectation of a turnaround," said a statement Friday by Raisg, a consortium of civil society organizations from the region’s countries. "The data signals a yellow light and gives a sense of urgency to the need for a coordinated, decisive and compelling international action.”

Brazil, which holds about two-thirds of the Amazon, also leads the destruction. In almost four decades, 19% of its rainforest has been destroyed, due mainly to cattle ranching expansion supported by the opening of roads. The country accounted for 84% of all forest destruction in the period.

Almost half of Brazil’s carbon emissions comes from deforestation. The destruction is so vast that the eastern Amazon has ceased to be a carbon sink, or absorber, for the Earth and has become a carbon source, according to a study published in 2021 in the journal Nature.

As of 2021, the Amazon had 74% of its area covered by tropical rainforests and 9% of other natural vegetation types. The region, with 8.5 million square kilometers, holds a population of 47 million people, according to Raisg estimates.

“At least some 75 billion metric tons of carbon are stored across the Amazon,” Woods Hole Research Center researcher Wayne Walker said during a press conference Friday in Lima, Peru. “If all that carbon ended up immediately in the atmosphere, that would be about seven times global annual emissions.”

__

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE Associated Press

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

San Francisco vote to allow police use of deadly robots spurs concern and outrage

“I don’t think that we’ve done enough research,” one law professor and retired detective said.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department deploy a robot following a fatal shooting at a light-rail yard in San Jose, Calif., in 2021.Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images file

Dec. 2, 2022
By Daniella Silva

A vote by San Francisco city supervisors in support of allowing police to use robots to kill people in emergency circumstances has drawn criticism from experts in law enforcement and security who say it could lead to dangerous and unintended consequences.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to advance an ordinance that includes a controversial policy that would give city police the ability to deploy robots to use lethal force in extraordinary circumstances “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and officers cannot subdue the threat after using alternative force options or de-escalation tactics.”


After a contentious debate, the members of the board voted 8 to 3 in support of the policy, which will need to pass another vote by the board on Dec. 6 and then be signed by the mayor for it to become law.

The vote came about after California passed a law last year requiring law enforcement departments to seek approval for use of military-style equipment.

“I don’t think that we’ve done enough research" or that "we’ve really been thoughtful about this,” said Kirk Burkhalter, a law professor at the New York Law School and a retired detective with the New York City Police Department.

Burkhalter said he believes it would be extremely rare for a police response to necessitate the use of a robot capable of killing. But in taking the step toward approving such, Burkhalter said he believes police departments around the country will follow San Francisco's lead, making it commonplace to deploy robots to use deadly force.

"Once we go down this road, it’s very difficult to pull back,” he said.

Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for civil liberties in the digital realm, criticized the measure for using what he said is vague language that makes it “not at all unreasonable for us to assume that in standoffs with people in the midst of a mental health crisis or something police will now feel empowered to send out robots that are equipped with explosive charges.”

Paul Scharre, the vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank focused on national security issues, said the San Francisco proposal was “the exact opposite of what we should be using robots for in a policing context.”

Scharre, who is also the author of “Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War,” said the advantage of using a robot is that it creates a safe distance between police officers and armed suspects, and thus police should try to “find ways to use that increased distance as a way to build more options for law enforcement to use” instead of lethal force.

The vote in San Francisco comes more than six years after police in Dallas used a robot with an explosive device to kill a suspect who was holed up inside a parking garage after an ambush in which five officers were killed and seven others were injured, along with two civilians.

“We are pretty far away from this being an effective, thoughtful tool to be used in anything but extreme circumstances like Dallas,” Burkhalter said, adding that he feared the San Francisco vote was getting “ahead of ourselves.”

The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that the policy allowed for the ability to use “potentially lethal force in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of life.”

"The use of robots in potentially deadly force situations is a last resort option. We live in a time when unthinkable mass violence is becoming more commonplace," San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in the statement. "We need the option to be able to save lives in the event we have that type of tragedy in our city.”

Police Chief William Scott speaks during a news conference in San Francisco in 2019.

Eric Risberg / AP file

The police department acquired robots between 2010 and 2017 and “does not own or operate robots outfitted with lethal force options and the Department has no plans to outfit robots with any type of firearm,” according to the statement.

The statement said the robots are used primarily in bomb situations or other incidents in which police officers may need to keep a safe distance. But in “extreme circumstances” those robots could be used to deliver an explosive to breach structures where there is an armed suspect, and could incapacitate a suspect or cause injury or be lethal.

The department said only the chief of police, assistant chief of operations, or deputy chief of special operations could authorize the use of robots to potentially kill a suspect.

During the board of supervisors meeting this week, David Lazar, the assistant chief of the San Francisco Police Department, gave the 2017 Las Vegas shooting as an example of when police could have benefited from the use of robots with the ability to kill. In that case, a gunman fired a barrage of bullets from the 32nd floor of a hotel, killing 60 people in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S.

Dean Preston, a supervisor on the board who voted against the measure, said he has received a “really widespread outpouring of opposition” to the proposed policy from constituents across the city.

Preston said that the country has been in a national conversation about police violence and racial disparities in policing since the death of George Floyd in 2020 and that the vote “is certainly an indication that we’ve really strayed pretty far from that conversation we need to be having.”

Preston cited the San Francisco Police Department's own data that found that in 2021 police used force on Black people 12 times more than white people.

“We run a very serious risk of misuse by police of a robot to inflict deadly force,” he said. “In the United States, we have a number of examples of abuse of that power even without robots.”

Preston referred to a 1985 bombing in which Philadelphia police dropped a bomb onto the compound of the Black organization MOVE, killing six members and five of their children, and destroying 65 homes in the neighborhood.

He also highlighted an incident from June 2021 in which Los Angeles police detonated a massive cache of illegal fireworks, causing a “catastrophic” blast that injured 17 people and damaged dozens of properties.

Preston said he hoped that outrage following the first vote in San Francisco would sway more of his fellow board members to vote against the measure Tuesday.

Matt Dorsey, a member of the board who supported the policy, said during the meeting this week that he was not comfortable putting an explicit restriction on robots using deadly force that was “unique or at least rare among cities in the United States.”

“I want to make sure that we have state of the art equipment, and God forbid if we are ever in a situation where we have a terrorist attack or a mass shooting event, that we are not depriving ourselves of access to something that will protect public safety,” he said.

Catherine Stefani, a member of the board, added that police needed to respond to “the sad situation of the gun violence epidemic in our country.”

“These military-style weapons are on our streets,” she said. “So when people talk about the militarization of our police force without context as to what’s happening around us, it’s really unfair.”

But Scharre said he found the robot proposal at odds with the fact that in San Francisco, police are not authorized to carry stun guns.

“If you don’t trust someone with a Taser, would you let them have a robot armed with explosives?” he said.

Daniella Silva is a reporter for NBC News, focusing on education and how laws, policies and practices affect students and teachers. She also writes about immigration.

Hillary Clinton: Overturning Roe v. Wade Puts US in Company of Sudan, Afghanistan

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday suggested that overturning Roe v. Wade puts America in the same company as Afghanistan and Sudan, countries notorious for human rights violations against women.

"It's so shocking to think that in any way we're related to poor Afghanistan and Sudan," she said Friday at the Women's Voices Summit at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. "But as an advanced economy as we allegedly are, on this measure, we unfortunately are rightly put with them."

In Sudan, women cannot have abortions unless their lives are in danger or if they are raped. In Afghanistan, women are banned from having abortions unless their lives are in danger.

The U.S. Supreme Court this summer eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, leaving the decision up to states.

There are near-total bans on abortion in place in over a dozen states. The 2022 midterm elections saw five states put abortion access directly on the ballot.

In Michigan, Vermont and California, ballot measures that would make abortion a protected right under their states' Constitutions passed in all three states.

In Kentucky, voters rejected Constitutional Amendment 2, which would have explicitly stated that the state Constitution provides no protection for abortion rights.

In Montana, voters rejected a so-called "Born Alive" ballot measure that would have required medical workers to provide care to infants born prematurely or, in rare instances, of surviving an attempted abortion or face penalties.

Clinton on Friday said limits on abortion are undemocratic.

"This struggle is between autocracy and democracy from our country to places we can't even believe we're being compared to," Clinton said

NEWSMAX

Syria Kurds halt joint ops with US-led coalition after Turkish raids -spokesman

Story by By Orhan Qereman • TODAY

FILE PHOTO: A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) holds her weapon as they announce the destruction of Islamic State's control of land in eastern Syria© Thomson Reuters

QAMISHLI, Syria (Reuters) -The Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed group that helped defeat Islamic State jihadists in Syria, said on Friday it had stopped all joint counter-terrorism operations with the United States and other allies as a result of Turkish bombardment on its area of control.

Turkey has ramped up its shelling and air strikes on northern Syria in recent weeks and is preparing a ground invasion against Syrian Kurdish fighters that it dubs terrorists but which make up the bulk of the U.S.-supported SDF.

The SDF has long warned that fighting off a new Turkish incursion would divert resources away from protecting a prison holding IS fighters or fighting IS sleeper cells still waging hit-and-run attacks in Syria.

Aram Henna told Reuters that "all coordination and joint counter-terrorism operations" with the U.S.-led coalition battling remnants of the Islamic State in Syria as well as "all the joint special operations we were carrying out regularly" had been halted.

The Turkish bombardment - using both long-range weapons and air strikes - has frustrated its NATO ally Washington.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Turkish counterpart on Wednesday that the United States was in "strong opposition to a new Turkish military operation in Syria."

Related video: Why have Syria Kurds halted all joint counter-terrorism operations with the US-led coalition?

Duration 1:51   View on Watch

Washington warns against Syrian incursion, Pentagon chief cautions Turkiye on strikes

Austin also said Turkish raids had "directly threatened the safety of U.S. personnel who are working with local partners in Syria to defeat ISIS," according to the Pentagon. [L1N32Q3W8]

The U.S.-led coalition has backed the SDF with air strikes, military equipment and advisers since 2017, first helping it wrest back territory from IS and then supporting clearing operations against jihadist sleeper cells.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder had earlier told reporters that only joint patrols had been suspended and that operations against IS had not stopped.

The U.S.-led coalition did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters on Friday about whether more operations had been suspended.

Sheikhmous Ahmed, the head of the displacement department in Syria's northeast, told Reuters that Turkish raids in late November had disrupted operations in and around al-Hol, a detention camp where women and children affiliated to IS fighters are held.

He said humanitarian operations were suspended for several days and that some minors affiliated to IS had tried to escape but were caught.

A Western source briefed on the matter confirmed that there was "some worrying movement" in the section where foreign IS-linked women and children were held.

SDF head Mazloum Abdi earlier this week told Reuters he wanted a "stronger" message from Washington after seeing unprecedented Turkish deployments along the border. [L1N32P0PR]

"We are still nervous. We need stronger, more solid statements to stop Turkey," he said. "Turkey has announced its intent and is now feeling things out. The beginning of an invasion will depend on how it analyses the positions of other countries."

(Reporting by Orhan Qereman in Qamishli, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Writing by Maya GebeilyEditing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Kim Coghill, William Maclean)

Passenger killed after large ‘rogue’ wave hits Antarctic cruise ship

By Staff The Associated Press
Posted December 2, 2022 

One person was killed, and four other passengers were injured when a giant wave broke several panes of glass on a Viking Polaris cruise ship sailing in Antarctic waters in a storm on November 29. Getty Images

A U.S. woman was killed and four other passengers injured when a massive wave struck the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina on an Antarctic cruise, authorities said.


The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday during a storm, Argentine authorities said. The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles (3100 kilometres) south of Buenos Aires, the next day.

“It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident,” Viking said in statement. “We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies.”

Neither the statement nor the Argentine Naval Prefecture identified the woman or her hometown.

Viking called it a “rogue wave incident” and said the four other passengers’ injuries were non-life threatening.

The cruise ship was anchored near Ushuaia, where a federal court has opened a case to determine what happened.

Suzie Gooding, an American woman on-board the cruise, told North Carolina news station WRAL that they felt the impact of the massive wave on the ship.

“We wondered if we hit an iceberg,” she said. “And there are no icebergs out here, but that’s how it felt.”

“We have made the difficult decision to cancel the ship’s next scheduled departure,” said Viking in a statement, adding that “all impacted guests and their travel advisors have been notified directly by Viking Customer Relations.”

“Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew,” it continued. “We are working directly with them to arrange return travel.”

The company indicated on its website that to explore remote regions of the world they have “two purpose-built, state-of-the-art small expedition-class ships: Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris.”

The Viking Polaris, a vessel that has luxury facilities and was built in 2022, has capacity for 378 passengers and 256 crew members.

—

— With files from Global News’ Chris Jancelewicz

'End this ongoing genocide:' Indigenous advocates call for change after women killed


The arrest of a man accused of killing four women, all believed to be Indigenous, shows vulnerable women and girls are subject to the dangerous outcomes if governments don't work together to end gender and race-based violence, Indigenous advocates say.


Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller 

Several Indigenous groups are urging governments and other institutions in power to fulfil the 231 Calls for Justice outlined in the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, released in 2019.

"The political will of all levels of government is required to end this ongoing genocide," the National Family and Survivors Circle said in a statement Friday.

The group said Indigenous women are disproportionate victims of violence in Canada due to "unchecked racism and misogyny."

Winnipeg police on Thursday charged Jeremy Skibicki, 35, with first-degree murder in the deaths of Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and an unidentified woman. Their bodies have not been found.

Skibick was taken into custody and charged May 18 with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, 24. Her partial remains were found in a garbage bin near an apartment building and police later found the rest of her remains in a Winnipeg landfill.

Contois, Harris and Myran are Indigenous and police said they believe the fourth victim is Indigenous as well.

"Their deaths serve as horrific proof that serious actions must be taken to stop these crimes," the Native Women's Association of Canada said in a statement.

"They explain why the government cannot just hold an inquiry and say job done. The inquiry was just the first step. Now it is time for serious action."

The national inquiry called the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women genocide in it's final report.

The federal government released its national action plan last year, on the second anniversary of the release of the final report, which some criticized because of its lack of devoted funding, timelines or measurable goals.

The Native Women's Association released its own report card on the government's progressearlier this year and found little progress had been achieved.

Grand Chief Cathy Merrick with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs echoed calls for the federal and provincial governments to work with police to implement the national inquiry's recommendations aimed at tackling root causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

"We must work together to honour the 231 Calls to Justice and act immediately," she said in a news release.

The family advocate for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said First Nations women are being failed.

"We continue to witness the vulnerability of our unsheltered women," Cora Morgan said in statement.

"They feel their voices do not matter or their lives do not matter. Our women deserve more."

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said the federal government is failing in its responsibility to protect Indigenous women and girls, despite allocating money toward the issue.

Miller said he was shocked to learn Winnipeg police charged Skibicki with killing the four women.

"It's a legacy of a devastating history that has reverberations today," he said. "No one can stand in front of you with confidence to say that this won't happen again, and I think that's kind of shameful."

Contois lived in Winnipeg and was a member of the O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River. Harris and Myran also lived in Winnipeg and were both members of Long Plain First Nation.

Police said Harris, Myran and Contois were killed in May. The unidentified victim is thought to have been killed on or about March 15. Police released a photo of a jacket similar to one she had been wearing.

Winnipeg has often been referred to as ground zero or the epicentre of the crisis of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Miller said the federal government will continue to work to address some of the systemic issues that put Indigenous women in vulnerable situations, including reforming the child-welfare system and opening more shelters.

"The federal government has a responsibility … despite the investments that we've put in — and they're significant," he said. "We are trailing in the face of a tragedy."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press

Canadian officials knew for years existing laws didn’t curb foreign influence

Story by Alex Boutilier • 

Chinese President Xi Jinping waves at an event to introduce new members of the Politburo Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 23, 2022. Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s possible leader for life, Xi is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his draconian “zero-COVID” program that will soon enter its fourth year. 

(AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)© MAS

Trudeau backs Chinese protesters, says China ‘an increasingly challenging economic power’

Canadian officials have known for years that the country’s existing laws did not cover foreign governments’ interference in domestic politics, documents reviewed by Global News suggest.

The documents were unearthed just as Canada’s public safety minister said the government was looking at ways to beef up its defence against foreign influence in domestic affairs.

Canada struggles with curbing foreign interference: ‘Often we cannot do anything’

December 2020 emails at Global Affairs Canada, obtained by Global News under access to information law, state that officials were aware that some types of foreign influence in Canadian politics slipped through the cracks of existing laws. Examples in the documents include foreign investment in university research, as well as “communications activities” to promote foreign agendas.

Canadian intelligence officials and Parliament’s national security committee have cautioned for years that foreign governments – most notably China, Russia, and Iran – are actively trying to influence Canadian affairs. Some of this activity is overt, while other influence operations remain in the shadows.

The documents reviewed by Global News were part of preparations for a House of Commons speech by former Global Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on the issue of Chinese interference in Canadian politics.

The speech, drafted for a December late debate in the House of Commons at the prompting of the opposition Conservatives, originally suggested existing laws were sufficient to curb foreign influence. But an objection from a foreign affairs bureaucrat – their name was censored in the documents – cautioned that wasn’t true.

“There are several situations not covered by the Lobbying Act and the Conflict of Interest Act, such as for instance an agent undertaking communication activity or engaging in a big disbursement of activities on behalf of a foreign government,” the email reads.

“Some of these activities would be covered if happening under election periods by the Canada Elections Act, but foreign interference is not limited to those periods.”

Indo-Pacific strategy offers ‘clear framework’ for dealing with China: Joly

Duration 1:08  View on Watch

The official gave the example of foreign powers funding university research “in order to promote certain narratives or muzzle others.” Canada’s intelligence agencies – including the Canadians Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) – have recently dramatically increased their partnerships with university research institutions, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis.

The spy agencies were concerned that hostile foreign powers – notably China and Russia – would attempt to harvest cutting-edge pandemic research from Canada’s universities and health networks.

While officials have known for years that existing laws did not adequately cover Canada from foreign intervention, Ottawa has been reluctant to bring in new powers – such as a registry of people engaged by foreign powers to try and influence Canadian policy.

On Friday, The Canadian Press reported that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is considering taking that step – as close security allies like the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom have done.

Read more:

Toronto businessman allegedly focus of Chinese interference probes: sources

“The fact is that the landscape of foreign interference is becoming increasingly complex … One of the proposals that we are looking very carefully at is the creation of a foreign agent registry,” Mendicino said in an interview.

“We hope to have more to say about that in the very short term. But we are very much looking forward to going out and having a good consultation.”

Global News reported in November that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet were briefed in January 2022 that the Chinese Consulate in Toronto directed a clandestine election interference network in 2019. Intelligence sources told Global News that it included a loosely-affiliated group of Liberals and Conservatives which benefited from funding from the Chinese Communist Party to help advance Beijing’s political objectives in Canada.

Other intelligence sources told Global News the consulate disbursed $250,000 through proxies to the network, which allegedly included an Ontario MPP and at least 11 federal candidates. Intelligence sources now tell Global News that as many as 14 political staffers were involved in the network.

While the briefings did not conclude that Beijing funded campaigns directly, that is how Trudeau and political leaders have chosen to interpret the reporting in House of Commons debates.

But the internal government documents reviewed by Global News suggest that, just over a year after the 2019 campaign, Global Affairs Canada was working on a cost benefit analysis about introducing a registry of foreign agents operating in Canada.

“(We are) currently working on a note that assess the pros and cons of the U.S. and Australian legislations to inform future (Government of Canada) policy development and decision making,” the unnamed official wrote in December 2020.

Kenny Chiu, a former Conservative MP who lost his Richmond, B.C., seat in the 2021 election, proposed a similar registry ahead of the general election. The bill went nowhere – dying when the election was called – and Chiu blames his loss, in part, on his stance against Beijing’s interference.

Video: Canada election: Conservative MP says he was target of ‘smear campaign’

The 2020 Global Affairs documents noted some questions about the efficacy of foreign agent registries, which have subsequently been adopted by Tory government in the U.K. Referring to the Australian example, the email noted that legal scholars have called into question that country’s foreign agent transparency regime on human rights concerns.

That debate has yet to begin in Canada, but if Mendicino’s comments Friday are to be believed, it’s about to.

Beijing has denied any attempt to meddle in Canada’s affairs – a claim belied by Parliament’s national security committee and the country’s intelligence agencies.

PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY EVENT THROUGH ZIONIST EYES
Canadian MPs attend 'solidarity' event with publisher of Holocaust denialism

Story by Bryan Passifiume • Yesterday 
A Liberal cabinet minister, the leader of the Green Party and MPs from all other parties attended an event earlier this week that hosted the publisher of a newspaper known to publish Holocaust denialism and with a long history of publishing antisemitic content.


NDP MP Niki Ashton, Liberal MP Salma Zahid, Green Leader Elizabeth May, and Liberal MP Omar Alghabra attend the Nov. 29 event hosted by Zahid.© Provided by National Post

The event, held on Tuesday, known as International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, was hosted by Toronto-area Liberal MP Salma Zahid, chair of the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Nazih Khatatba, publisher at Meshwar Media, was present as an invited guest. His newspaper, al-Meshwar, has claimed the Holocaust was a Jewish plot, and has referred to it as a “holohoax.”

MPs photographed at the event include Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi, NDP MPs Niki Ashton, Blake Desjarlais, Lindsay Mathyssen and Matthew Green, and Bloc MPs Denis Trudel and Mario Beaulieu. Conservative MP Larry Brock told the National Post that he also attended the event.

A story posted in Arabic to Meshwar Media’s website on Wednesday described the event under the headline “Representatives in the Canadian Parliament stand in solidarity with Palestine and call on the Government of Canada to support the Palestinian people.”

It read: “The speakers at the ceremony, including deputies and representatives of associations and civil organizations, affirmed their solidarity with Palestine and their condemnation of the killings that Palestinians are subjected to at the hands of the occupation forces and settlers.”

“Member of Parliament Niki Ashton said that Canada can play a better role for peace in the Middle East and is keen on human rights in the world, especially for the Palestinians.”

Meshwar Media has a history of publishing antisemitic and anti-Israel articles and opinion pieces, including celebrating last week’s Jerusalem bombing attack that killed 16-year-old Canadian-Israeli Aryeh Schupak.

In November 2017, an article published in the al-Meshwar newspaper claimed the Holocaust was a Jewish plot , claiming banks associated with the “Zionist movement” funded Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s.

Earlier that same year, Khatatba gave an interview on a Rogers TV program, urging Canadians to “not believe the fairy tales claiming Jews have suffered oppression.”

A 2014 story published by the Canadian Jewish News documented an al-Meshwar newspaper editorial describing a Jerusalem synagogue massacre as “courageous and qualitative.” Another editorial published in the newspaper, but not written by Khatatba, referred to the Holocaust as the “Holohoax.”



Ashton’s previous history with Khatatba includes her public disavowment of his endorsement during her 2017 NDP leadership bid , where she issued statements stating she “in no way” supports his views and “does not accept support from people who hold such views.”

A photo of Ashton and Khatatba, taken at a 2017 fundraiser in Mississauga, Ont., hosted by the Palestine Aid Society, was used in online and in print endorsements for her leadership bid, including on the front page of Khatatba’s newspaper.


MP Ahmed Hussen tells Parliament he knew about Laith Marouf contract for a month before speaking out

Liberals ignored Laith Marouf affair until it made the news

In a post on Twitter Thursday, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who was not at the event, said Meshwar Media was asked to return a government grant issued during the pandemic due to its antisemitic content.

A Nov. 10 statement posted on Meshwar Media’s Facebook page denounced Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez for demanding the money be returned, stating in Arabic that they “refuse to apologize” or stop publishing “articles criticizing Israel that they consider antisemitic.”

The federal Liberals faced a scandal earlier this year after Laith Marouf — a self-described “anti-racism” trainer with a history of posting antisemitic and racist tropes on social media — collected over $600,000 in federal contracts over the past seven years.

“In following up with the Minister’s office, they had determined based on the antisemitism they saw in the newspaper, that asking for the money to be returned was warranted, and that happened,” Housefather told the National Post.

“I’m very disappointed to see that he was here (on the Hill) — there were members of Parliament there from all parties, and I can only hope none of my colleagues there knew who he was and what he stood for.”

In a statement to the National Post, Zahid said invitations to the reception were “circulated widely” and it was attended by nearly 150 people.

“We are not able to research the history of every attendee that responded,” the statement read.

“As chair of the group, I will continue to be a voice for the human rights of the Palestinian people and for a just and fair two-state solution achieved at the negotiating table.”

In a follow-up email, Zahid maintains she has “long been a voice against antisemitism,” and provided text of a statement she delivered in the house six years ago denouncing antisemitic attacks.

A spokesperson from the transport minister’s office likewise denied any connection to Khatatba.

“This event was a parliamentary friendship group event that included MPs and members of the Palestinian community from across the country,” the statement read.

“What this individual said is offensive and anti semitic and must be condemned. Minister Alghabra had no contact with this person or even knew that this person was present at this event.”

An NDP spokesperson said that the party’s MPs did not know Khatatba would be at the event.

“The purpose of the event was to recognize the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People that the United Nations commemorates,” Alana Cahill, the party’s deputy communications director, said in an email. “They went to express their support for an UN recognized day — not for any of the attendees.”

B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn urged parliamentarians who attended the event to denounce Khatatba’s views.

“ Each and every parliamentarian, regardless of their particular perspective on the Middle East, owes a duty to Canadians not to be seen as condoning antisemitism or any other form of racism through their public association with a discredited and hateful news source.,” he wrote.

Brock, the Conservative MP, said he was invited to the event by a constituent, and said if he had been aware of Khatatba’s attendance he wouldn’t have gone.

“ This individual has expressed their sickening and vile views publicly and made statements of support in response to the massacring of Jewish people and children,” he said.

“ I fully condemn antisemitism and reject these disgusting views. They have no place in Canadian society.”

A statement from the Green Party stated May was not aware Khatatba was attending the event, saying that party leaders attend “all sorts of events” and seldom have control over attendees.

“I wholeheartedly denounce antisemitism but let me be clear once and for all: showing solidarity with Palestine isn’t antisemitism and neither is criticism of the state of Israel’s human rights record,” May said in a statement to the National Post.

“We denounce all forms of violence and show solidarity with civilian Israeli and Palestinian victims alike.”

• Email: bpassifiume@postmedia.com | Twitter:

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story conflated two editorials in al-Meshwar. The post has been updated to reflect the change.

Engineers Propose an Ambitious Plan to Bury Excess Carbon at The Bottom of The Ocean

Story by Tessa Koumoundouros • Yesterday

Bottom of the ocean looking up© Provided by ScienceAlert

Our failure to decisively mitigate climate change is prompting researchers to examine more drastic approaches, like fertilizing the oceans to combat the massive excess of carbon dioxide in our air.

"At this point, time is of the essence," says Michael Hochella, an Earth scientist at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

"To combat rising temperatures, we must decrease CO2 levels on a global scale. Examining all our options, including using the oceans as a CO2 sink, gives us the best chance of cooling the planet."

Phytoplankton, the photosynthesizing variety of microorganisms that float on the ocean's surface, are one of the main components of the carbon cycle's biological pump that takes CO2 out of the air to store in the ocean's depths.

The tiny organisms need minerals like iron to grow and multiply, but there's only a fixed amount floating at the surface of the waters with them, which limits how much phytoplankton can bloom.



Seeding the oceans with nano-scale fertilizers could create a much-needed, substantial carbon sink. (Stephanie King/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)© Provided by ScienceAlert

So just as fertilizer can help photosynthesizing organisms flourish on land, the same help could – theoretically – be offered to the sunlight eaters that float on our seas.

Whales once performed a huge chunk of natural ocean fertilization, feeding plankton the otherwise out-of-reach nutrients via giant plumes of poop. Before industrial whaling drastically diminished whale numbers, whales helped remove close to 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year through this process; now it's closer to 200,000 tonnes.

So by artificially adding this missing fertilizer, we could stimulate these microbes to grow and reproduce, suck up more CO2 from the air, and carry it with them to their deaths. The CO2 is stored in the ocean floor at this point, back to where most of the excess has been released thanks to human activities.

This poetic completion of the cycle we've broken could sequester this carbon for hundreds of thousands of years, as the fossils-turned-fuel did before them.

Related video: COP27: U.S. Unveils New Plan to Drastically Cut Carbon Emissions
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Larger soluble forms of the required nutrients don't tend to linger near the surface for long enough to be used up by the phytoplankton, the team explains, so researchers turned to nanoparticles. Nanoparticles like iron oxides and iron oxyhydroxides are natural ocean fertilizers from sources like volcanic ash and soil sediments.

"The idea is to augment existing processes," says Hochella. "Humans have fertilized the land to grow crops for centuries. We can learn to fertilize the oceans responsibly."

Reviewing 123 studies, University of Leeds biogeochemist Peyman Babakhani and colleagues found some engineered nanoparticles that might be candidates for safely fertilizing phytoplankton growth.

Artificial ocean fertilization would need to happen at a level that increased the microalgae numbers but not enough to risk toxicity.

Some of the studies the team assessed were able to achieve an increase of 35-756 percent algal growth and abundance compared with controls.

What's more, it appears that the nanoparticle's affinity to the cell surfaces (in this case, phytoplankton) dictates how much is taken up, rather than concentrations, so it could be released at levels equivalent to those already in the seawater.

Some experiments found that the growth of phytoplankton blooms using ocean fertilizer ended up depleting other surrounding nutrients that weren't artificially supplied. This stalled their growth, which means future fertilizers might need to incorporate more minerals.

"If considerable CO2 drawdown is achieved by using engineered nanoparticles, this may allow applications of the approach as a carbon dioxide removal technology at smaller scales or specific locations," the team explains in their paper, "and thus allay some of the concerns regarding risks of geoengineering the entire marine ecosystem and downstream 'nutrient stealing'."

As with any wide-scale manipulations of the environment, this proposal does not come without significant risks, much like the use of land fertilizers.

"While natural nanoparticles exist in most ocean settings, the potential adverse environmental risks of adding [engineered nanoparticles] to the ocean require rigorous assessment," Babakhani and colleagues warn.

None of these particles have undergone a focused study in realistic conditions, so this idea is very much still in the brainstorming stage.

The long-term impact of the nanoparticles on the biogeochemistry of the oceans is unknown, especially in light of their tendency to aggregate over time in marine ecosystems, potentially smothering life below the ocean's surface.

The researchers outline a plan to begin addressing the numerous concerns. But they estimate that although engineering the correct nanoparticles would be substantially more expensive than using existing materials, it would give us the ability to tailor them to the needs of specific environments (those that need more silicon or iron, for example), making them more effective.

While the need for such extreme interventions is becoming more and more likely, researchers acknowledge they must be approached with extreme caution. Meanwhile, we already have reliable and much better understood methods of geoengineering: protecting remaining and restoring lost and degraded ecosystems.

This research was published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Israel's Netanyahu puts hardliner in charge of settlements

ISRAEL; RIGHT WING ZIONIST STATE NOT A DEMOCRACY

Thu, December 1, 2022



JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's designated prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday a coalition deal that will give a hardline, pro-settler party control over a number of key government ministries and a senior role in overseeing the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The agreement with the Religious Zionism party marked an important breakthrough for Netanyahu as he tries to cobble together a government following Nov. 1 elections. But it also could set the stage for conflict with key allies, first and foremost the United States.

Netanyahu's Likud Party said that Religious Zionism would share control over the Finance Ministry, run the government ministry in charge of immigration and head a new ministry of “national missions.” It said a party member would also hold a special ministerial level post in the Defense Ministry in charge of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, in coordination with Netanyahu.

“This is a significant additional step that nears us toward the formation of a right-wing, nationalist government,” Netanyahu said.

Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism party, called the deal a “historic step” that will “develop the settlement enterprise.”

Smotrich is a leader of the West Bank settlement movement and is seeking a massive increase in construction of Jewish housing in occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. The international community, including the U.S., overwhelmingly considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate.

Netanyahu and his hardline allies captured a majority of seats in Nov. 1 parliamentary elections, putting him in a position to form a new government.

He has reached deals with two other hardline partners giving them control over Israel's national police force and placing a politician known for his anti-LGBTQ views and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews in charge of “Jewish identity.”

The Associated Press