Huge Berlin aquarium bursts, unleashing flood of devastation

 

Following the burst of a huge aquarium, the atrium of a hotel is devastated in Berlin Germany, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. German police say a huge aquarium in the center of Berlin has burst, causing a wave of devastation in and around the Sea Life tourist attraction. 

EMILY SCHULTHEIS and FRANK JORDANS
Fri, December 16, 2022

BERLIN (AP) — A huge aquarium in Berlin burst, spilling debris, water and more than a thousand tropical fish out of the AquaDom tourist attraction in the heart of the German capital early Friday.

Police said parts of the building, which also contains a hotel, cafes and a chocolate store, were damaged as 1 million liters (264,000 gallons) of water poured from the aquarium shortly before 6 a.m. (0500 GMT). Berlin's fire service said two people were slightly injured.

The company that owns the AquaDom, Union Investment Real Estate, said in a statement Friday afternoon that the reasons for the incident were “still unclear.”

Mayor Franziska Giffey said the incident had unleashed a “veritable tsunami” of water but the early morning timing had prevented far more injuries.


“Despite all the destruction, we were still very lucky,” she said. “We would have had terrible human damage” had the aquarium burst even an hour later, once more people were awake and in the hotel and the surrounding area, she said.

The 25 meter tall (82 foot tall) AquaDom was described as the biggest cylindrical tank in the world and held more than a thousand tropical fish before the incident. Among the 80 types of fish it housed were blue tang and clownfish, two colorful species known from the popular animated movie “Finding Nemo.”

“Unfortunately, none of the 1,500 fish could be saved,” Giffey said.

Efforts were underway Friday afternoon to save an additional 400 to 500 smaller fish housed in aquariums underneath the hotel lobby. Without electricity, their tanks were not receiving the necessary oxygen for them to survive, officials said.

"Now it’s about evacuating them quickly,” Almut Neumann, a city official in charge of environmental issues for Berlin's Mitte district, told German news agency dpa.

Various organizations, including the Berlin Zoo, offered to take in the surviving fish.

Aquarium operator Sea Life said it was saddened by the incident and was trying to get more information about the incident from the owners of the AquaDom.

Sea Life's own aquarium is located in the same building and visitors can tour it and the AquaDom on a single ticket.

There was speculation freezing temperatures that got down to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight caused a crack in the acrylic glass tank, which then exploded under the weight of the water. Police said there was no evidence the incident resulted from a malicious act.

About 300 guests and employees had to be evacuated from the hotel surrounding the aquarium, police said.

Sandra Weeser, a German lawmaker who was staying in the hotel, said she was awoken up by a large bang and thought there might have been an earthquake.

“There are shards (of glass) everywhere. The furniture, everything has been flooded with water," she said. "It looks a bit like a war zone.”

Police said a Lindt chocolate store and several restaurants in the same building complex, as well as an underground parking garage next to the hotel, sustained damage. A fire service spokesman said building safety experts were assessing the extent to which the hotel had sustained structural damage.

Hours after the incident, trucks began clearing away the debris that had spilled out onto the street in front of the hotel. Brightly colored Lindt chocolate wrappers were scattered in front of the building where the chocolate shop had been damaged. A small crowd of tourists and onlookers snapped photos from behind the police line across the street.

The aquarium, which was last modernized in 2020, is a major tourist magnet in Berlin. The 10-minute elevator ride through the tropical tank was one of the highlights of the attraction.

Animal rights group PETA tweeted Thursday that the aquarium became a “death trap” for the fish housed in it. “This man-made tragedy shows that aquariums are not a safe place for fish and other marine life," they wrote.

Iva Yudinski, a tourist from Israel who had been staying at the hotel, said she was shocked by the incident

“Just yesterday we watched it and we were so amazed (by) its beauty," she said. "Suddenly it’s all gone. Everything is a mess, a total mess.”

Spain passes pioneering sexual, reproductive health law


A woman walks past an anti-abortion poster across the street from the private clinic Dator, which provides abortions, in Madrid


Thu, December 15, 2022 

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament on Thursday passed a sexual and reproductive health law that allows girls aged 16 and 17 to undergo abortions without parental consent and, in a first for a European country, offers state-funded paid leave for women who suffer from painful periods.

"These advancements allow us to exercise freedom over our bodies, with the state recognising the full citizenship of more than half the population," Equality Minister Irene Montero told lawmakers before the vote, which was adopted with a 190-154 majority and five abstentions.

The country's leftist coalition government had introduced the bill - opposed by anti-abortion activists and the Catholic Church - in May with the aim of guaranteeing abortion access and destigmatising menstrual health.

The new law removes a mandatory three-day "reflection" period for women who wish to terminate their pregnancy and eliminates the need for those aged 16-17 to obtain the consent of a parent or guardian to abort. This requirement had been put in place by the conservative People's Party government in 2015.

It also includes paid leave for pregnant women from week 39, ensures the distribution of free menstrual products in public institutions such as schools, prisons or health centres, and designates surrogate pregnancies - which are illegal in Spain - as a form of violence against women.

Lourdes Mendez from the far-right party Vox said that by declaring abortion a human right, the law violated the constitution and turned Spain's system of values upside down.

"In the face of an unplanned pregnancy or a baby that may be born with a disability, there is only one way out: the elimination of the life of her child," she said.

Sonia Lamas, a spokesperson for the women's health clinic Dator, told Reuters in an interview in May that the clinic welcomed these measures.

The so-called reflection period was unnecessary because "women make very informed decisions and we don't need to reflect on something that we have already decided", she added.

The clinic has faced protests by abortion opponents who regularly hold group prayers and stage demonstrations in front of the building.

Lamas said the groups conducted campaigns "to approach women in areas such as the entrance of accredited clinics - which should be safe spaces".

The law is now headed for the upper house for final approval.

(Reporting by David Latona, Susana Vera and Elena Rodríguez; Editing by William Maclean)

More questions than answers at Colorado River water meetings




A formerly sunken boat sits upright into the air with its stern stuck in the mud along the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on June 10, 2022, near Boulder City, Nev. Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus for a conference starting Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Las Vegas, about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River.

 (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

KEN RITTER
Thu, December 15, 2022

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Key questions resurfaced Thursday at a conference of Colorado River water administrators and users from seven U.S. states, Native American tribes and Mexico who are served by the shrinking river stricken by drought and climate change.

Who will bear the brunt of more water supply cuts, and how quickly?

What target goals need to be met for voluntary cutbacks in water use by the seven states that rely on the river before the federal government steps in?

What about controlling water evaporation once snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains enters the system and begins flowing to Mexico?

“I don’t have answers. I just have questions right now,” Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, said during a Colorado River Water Users Association panel about the state of the river.

The agency manages canals delivering water to much of Arizona, and was the first to feel the effects last year of drought-forced cuts to water flow from the river.

The Colorado provides drinking water to 40 million people, irrigation for millions of acres of agriculture and hydropower in the U.S. Southwest.

“Collective painful action is necessary now,” Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, said during the same panel.

The river serves four headwater states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and three so-called Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada. Tribes and Mexico also have water entitlements.

Talk at sessions Wednesday and Thursday has focused on cooperation between users to solve shortages. But data showing less water flows into the river than is drawn from it has dominated over the conference. And after more than two decades of drought and climate change, the annual conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas has taken on a crisis vibe.

“The alternative to inaction is brutal and entirely obvious,” Cullom said of a domino effect of shortages that would be borne first by entities with junior water rights advancing to those with senior standing. “We agree all states, sectors and tribes must play a role.”

Deadlines about what to do are fast approaching, along with a deadline next Tuesday for public comment on a federal Bureau of Reclamation effort expected to yield a final report by summer about how to save about 15% of river water now distributed to recipients.

David Palumbo, the Bureau of Reclamation deputy commissioner of operations, told the conference panel with Cooke and Cullom Thursday he hoped for answers. Those include assumptions about the amount of water flowing in the river; effects of changing river flows in the Grand Canyon; how officials should administer reductions; and considerations about public health and safety.

Limiting population growth was not discussed as an option. Cooke said market forces, not the government, should dictate who moves where.

“People have the right to make a good choice or a bad choice,” he said, “and that includes moving to a spot that might not have water.”

The bureau controls the flow of the river with waterworks including the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell formed by the Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line.

Lake Mead was at 100% capacity in mid-1999. Today it is 28% full. Lake Powell, which was last full in June 1980, is at 25%.

Water deliveries were cut last year for the first time to Arizona and Nevada, mostly affecting farmers in Arizona under a 1968 agreement that gave the state junior rights to river water in exchange for U.S. funding to build a 336-mile (540-kilometer) canal to its major cities.

The bureau could impose top-down rules that override shares that states agreed to take in 1922 and subsequent agreements. However, although federal officials are due to speak on Friday — including Camille Touton, bureau commissioner, and two top Interior Department representatives — blockbuster announcements are not expected.

Reclamation officials last June told the seven states they’ll have to cut more, and left it to them to identify ways to cut the 15% next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. The federal government has also allocated billions of dollars to pay farmers to fallow fields and to help cities cut water use.

“We’re using more than we have,” Brenda Burman, former head of the Bureau of Reclamation, said during “Colorado River 101” on Wednesday.

“We could be looking at a lot of cuts. We could be looking at a lot of changes,” she said.

As head of the bureau, Burman had warned the Water Users Association four years ago that drought action was needed. She'll be replacing Cooke, who is retiring, as general manager of the Central Arizona Project.

Becky Mitchell, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, expressed frustration Thursday that people don't realize that water is captured in Upper Basin states and then doled out by the bureau in Lower Basin states.

Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming "live within the means of the river every day,” she said.

John Entsminger, general manager of the Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Water Authority, compared dealing with the effects of drought on the Colorado River to a national emergency like a hurricane in Florida, and said the federal government could invest national emergency funds.

Entsminger also said it's time to chart the amount of water lost to evaporation when usage and allocations are considered.

“We have not accounted for the amount of water we are losing from the system,” he said. “Call it evaporation, system losses, call it strawberry shortcake for all we care. Do the math and the analysis.”

___

Associated Press journalist Peter Prengaman in Las Vegas contributed to this repor

German official dedicates legal win against Twitter to Fauci


Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Nov. 22, 2022, in Washington. A German official who won a defamation case against Twitter this week has dedicated his legal victory to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert targeted by the microblogging site's new owner, Elon Musk. 

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


FRANK JORDANS
Thu, December 15, 2022 

BERLIN (AP) — A German official who won a defamation case against Twitter this week dedicated his legal victory to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert targeted by the microblogging site's new owner, Elon Musk.

A Frankfurt regional court ruled Wednesday that Twitter has to remove false or defamatory tweets about Michael Blume, who is the southwest German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg’s commissioner against antisemitism. Crucially, the court made clear that the order applies not only to identical posts but also to any that are substantially similar.

Blume told The Associated Press on Thursday that he wanted to dedicate the successful outcome of his case to Fauci, to send a signal that Twitter “can't simply let people be trolled and stalked for years.”

“When even Elon Musk himself lets trolls loose on a scientist, then that's disturbing,” he said. “I believe that's just wrong.”


Musk recently called for Fauci, a leading figure in the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be prosecuted. His tweet was warmly applauded by users opposed to the U.S. pandemic response, with some posting images of Fauci wearing prison garb or in a coffin.

Blume had taken Twitter to court in Germany after users of the platform suggested he had “a closeness to pedophilia,” of committing adultery, and being involved in “antisemitic scandals,” according to a court statement. Blume rejects all those claims as false and states that he acted after some Twitter users targeted his wife and children, too.

Judges concluded that Twitter should have removed those comments as soon as it was notified. While the descriptions of Blume as antisemitic could be covered by free speech laws, the court ruled that in this case they weren't intended to contribute to public debate but clearly designed as part of an emotional smear campaign. Failure to remove such posts in future can result in fines of up to 250,000 euros ($268,000).

The ruling doesn't require Twitter to monitor everything all of its 237 million users write, but the company does need to deleted similar defamatory tweets, the court said.

It also ruled that posts which note Blume appeared on a “Global Anti-Semitism Top Ten" by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles last year were permissible statements of fact. The list has been strongly criticized by German officials and Jewish representatives in Germany.

“Regardless of whether (Blume's) inclusion in the list is justified, information on it can be provided,” the court said. “The antisemitism commissioner needs to defend himself against that in the public opinion battle.”

Blume's lawyer, Chan-jo Jun, said the ruling provides others who have faced similar smears on Twitter with legal ammunition to bring their own cases against the company.

The same court issued a similar ruling against Facebook’s parent company Meta in April.

“If someone wants a quick injunction against Twitter or Facebook, they would simply need to go to the same court,” said Jun, a prominent tech lawyer. “There’s a path that’s been beaten here and now it’s of course easier to follow.”

Wednesday’s verdict can be appealed within a month.

Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.

END THE DEATH PENALTY
Transgender inmate on Missouri's death row asks for mercy

This image provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Amber McLaughlin. McLaughlin, the first openly transgender woman set to be executed in the U.S., is asked Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare her, on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.

Missouri Department of Corrections via AP, File)


SUMMER BALLENTINE and JOHN D. HANNA
Wed, December 14, 2022

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The first openly transgender woman set to be executed in the U.S. is asking Missouri's governor for mercy, citing mental health issues.

Lawyers for Amber McLaughlin, now 49, on Monday asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare her.

McLaughlin was convicted of killing 45-year-old Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was raped and stabbed to death in St. Louis County.

There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the U.S. before, according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center.

“It's wrong when anyone's executed regardless, but I hope that this is a first that doesn't occur," federal public defender Larry Komp said. "Amber has shown great courage in embracing who she is as a transgender woman in spite of the potential for people reacting with hate, so I admire her display of courage.”


McLaughlin's lawyers cited her traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard, in the clemency petition. A foster parent rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father tased her, according to the letter to Parson. She tried to kill herself multiple times, both as a child and as an adult.

Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the Governor's Office is reviewing her request for mercy.

“These are not decisions that the Governor takes lightly,” Jones said in an email.

Komp said McLaughlin's lawyers are scheduled to meet with Parson on Tuesday.

A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death after a jury was unable to decide on death or life in prison without parole.

A federal judge in St. Louis ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2016, citing concerns about the effectiveness of McLaughlin’s trial lawyers and faulty jury instructions. But in 2021, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty.

McLaughlin's lawyers also listed the jury's indecision and McLaughlin's remorse as reasons Parson should spare her life.

Missouri has only executed one woman before, state Corrections Department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said in an email.

McLaughlin's lawyers said she previously was rooming with another transgender woman but now is living in isolation leading up to her scheduled execution date.

Pojmann said 9% of Missouri's prison population is female, and all capital punishment inmates are imprisoned at Potosi Correctional Center.

"It is extremely unusual for a woman to commit a capital offense, such as a brutal murder, and even more unusual for a women to, as was the case with McLaughlin, rape and murder a woman," Pojmann said.

Missouri executed two men this year. Kevin Johnson, a 37 year old who was convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis area police officer he blamed in the death of his younger brother, was put to death last month. Carmen Deck died by injection in May for killing James and Zelma Long during a robbery at their home in De Soto, Missouri, in 1996.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan

Lamar Johnson denies role in killing that led to life term


2/ 11

Wrongful Conviction Missouri

Lamar Johnson listens to testimony during the third day of his wrongful conviction hearing in St. Louis on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022.

 (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool)

JIM SALTER
Thu, December 15, 2022 

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri man seeking freedom after nearly three decades in prison for a murder he denies committing testified Thursday that he was with his girlfriend on the night of the crime, except for a few minutes when he stepped outside to sell drugs on a corner several blocks from where the victim was killed.

“Did you kill Marcus Boyd?" an attorney asked.

“No, sir,” Lamar Johnson responded.

A hearing in St. Louis will determine if Lamar Johnson’s conviction should be vacated. Judge David Mason is presiding over the hearing, which is expected to conclude Friday.

An investigation conducted by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner with help from the Innocence Project convinced Gardner that Johnson is innocent. She filed a motion in August to vacate his conviction. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is seeking to keep Johnson incarcerated.


Boyd was shot to death on the front porch of his home by two men wearing ski masks on Oct. 30, 1994. While Johnson was sent away for life, a second suspect, Phil Campbell, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for a seven-year prison term. Campbell is deceased.

Johnson, now 49, was 20 in October 1994. On the day Boyd died, Johnson made arrangements to sell drugs to a man at a south St. Louis corner.

Johnson said he took his girlfriend and their infant to the home of the friends, who lived at that corner. He stepped out briefly to make the drug deal, then returned, Johnson said. The transaction occurred at roughly the same time Boyd was killed several blocks away, he said.

Later that night, Johnson learned in a phone call that Boyd had been shot — and that Boyd’s girlfriend told police she thought Johnson might have something to do with it.

“What did you think would make her say something like that about you?” Mason asked.

“Probably my reputation,” Johnson said, acknowledging he was a gang member with a criminal record.

Johnson’s then-girlfriend, Erika Barrow, testified that she was with Johnson that entire night, except for about a five-minute span when he left to make the drug sale. She said the distance between the friends’ home and Boyd’s home would have made it impossible for Johnson to get there and back in five minutes.

Johnson said he and Boyd were friends who sold drugs together.

“We never had an argument or a fight or anything like that,” Johnson said. “To this day I don’t know why people suspect that I killed him.”

Assistant Attorney General Miranda Loesch questioned why Johnson didn’t go to Boyd’s girlfriend or family and offer comfort after the shooting, if the men were so close.

“You just went home,” Loesch said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Johnson answered.

Detective Joseph Nickerson testified that there was a potential rift over a faulty drug deal. Nickerson said he learned that the night before the killing, Johnson was upset with Boyd because a drug customer of theirs was unhappy with the quality of a drug purchase.

The case against Johnson was built largely on the words of two men: James Gregory Elking, who was trying to buy crack cocaine from Boyd at the time of the shooting; and William Mock, a jail inmate who said he overheard a conversation between Campbell and Johnson at the St. Louis jail.

Mock told investigators he heard one of the men say, “We should have shot that white boy,” apparently referring to Elking.

The man who prosecuted Johnson, Dwight Warren, acknowledged on Wednesday conviction was “iffy” without Mock's testimony. Johnson said he never made any such comment.

Special Assistant to the Circuit Attorney Charles Weiss sought to raise credibility concerns about Mock, noting that he sought release from incarceration as a reward for aiding the case. He had been successful in getting probation after a similar jailhouse revelation years earlier in Kansas City, Missouri.

Warren said he made no such promise but agreed to write a letter on Mock’s behalf to a state parole board. He didn't know if parole was granted.

Elking, who later went to prison for bank robbery, initially told police he couldn’t identify the gunmen. He testified this week that when he was initially unable to name anyone from the lineup, Nickerson told him, “I know you know who it is,” and urged him to “help get these guys off the street.” So, Elking said, he agreed to name Johnson as the shooter.

Nickerson has denied coercing Elking.

Gardner’s office said Elking was paid at least $4,000 after agreeing to testify. Warren said the money was to relocate Elking, who feared his life was in jeopardy for cooperating in the investigation.

James Howard, who is now serving a life sentence for murder and several other crimes that occurred three years after Boyd was killed, testified that he and Campbell decided to rob Boyd, who owed one of their friends money from the sale of drugs. A scuffle ensued and the men killed Boyd, he said.

“Was Lamar Johnson there?” asked Jonathan Potts, an attorney for Johnson.

“No,” Howard answered.

Campbell, years prior to his death, signed an affidavit saying Johnson was not involved in the killing.

In March 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Johnson’s request for a new trial after Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office argued successfully that Gardner lacked the authority to seek one so many years after the case was adjudicated.

The case led to passage of a state law that makes it easier for prosecutors to get new hearings in cases where there is fresh evidence of a wrongful conviction. That law freed another longtime inmate, Kevin Strickland, last year.

California approves roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2045



 Gen Nashimoto, of Luminalt, installs solar panels in Hayward, Calif., on April 29, 2020. California air regulators are set to approve an ambitious plan for the state to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Doing so will require a rapid transition away from oil and gas and toward renewable energy to power everything from cars to buildings.

 (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

SOPHIE AUSTIN
Thu, December 15, 2022 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California air regulators voted unanimously Thursday to approve an ambitious plan to drastically cut reliance on fossil fuels by changing practices in the energy, transportation and agriculture sectors, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough to combat climate change.

The plan sets out to achieve so-called carbon neutrality by 2045, meaning the state will remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits. It aims to do so in part by reducing fossil fuel demand by 86% within that time frame.

California had previously set this carbon neutrality target, but Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation making it a mandate earlier this year. The Democrat has said drastic changes are needed to position California as a global climate leader.

“We are making history here in California,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday.

But the plan's road to approval by the California Air Resources Board was not without criticism. Capturing large amounts of carbon and storing it underground is one of the most controversial elements of the proposal. Critics say it gives the state's biggest emitters reason to not do enough on their part to mitigate climate change.

In a meeting that lasted several hours, activists, residents and experts used their last chance to weigh in on the plan ahead of the board's vote. Many said the latest version, while not perfect, was an improvement from earlier drafts, committing the state to do more to curb planet-warming emissions.

Davina Hurt, a board member, said she was proud California is moving closer to its carbon neutrality goal.

“I’m glad that this plan is bold and aggressive,” Hurt said.

The plan does not commit the state to taking any particular actions but sets out a broad roadmap for how California can achieve its goals. Here are the highlights:

RENEWABLE POWER

The implementation of the plan hinges on the state's ability to transition away from fossil fuels and rely more on renewable resources for energy. It calls for the state to cut liquid petroleum fuel demand by 94% by 2045, and quadruple solar and wind capacity along that same timeframe.

Another goal would mean new residential and commercial buildings will be powered by electric appliances before the next decade.

The calls for dramatically lowering reliance on oil and gas come as public officials continue to grapple with how to avoid blackouts when record-breaking heat waves push Californians to crank up their air conditioning.

And the Western States Petroleum Association took issue with the plan's timeline.

“CARB’s latest draft of the Scoping Plan has acknowledged what dozens of studies have confirmed — that a complete phase-out of oil and gas is unrealistic," said Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the group's president, in a statement. "A plan that isn’t realistic isn’t really a plan at all.”

At the beginning of Thursday’s meeting, California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph touted the latest version of the plan as the most ambitious to date. It underwent changes after public comments earlier this year.

“Ultimately, achieving carbon neutrality requires deploying all tools available to us to reduce emissions and store carbon,” Randolph said.

TRANSPORTATION

Officials hope a move away from gas-powered cars and trucks reduces greenhouse gas emissions while limiting the public health impact of chemicals these vehicles release.

In a July letter to the air board, Newsom requested that the agency approve aggressive cuts to emissions from planes. This would accompany other reductions in the transportation sector as the state transitions to all zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.

The plan's targets include having 20% of aviation fuel demand come from electric or hydrogen sources by 2045 and ensuring all medium-duty vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2040. The board has already passed a policy to ban the sale of new cars powered solely by gasoline in the state starting in 2035.

CARBON CAPTURE

The plan refers to carbon capture as a “necessary tool” to implement in the state alongside other strategies to mitigate climate change. It calls for the state to capture 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and store it underground by 2045.

Connie Cho, an attorney for environmental justice group Communities for a Better Environment, called the plan “a huge step forward” to mitigate climate change and protect public health.

“Our communities have been suffering from chronic disease and dying at disproportionate rates for far too long because of the legacy of environmental racism in this country,” Cho said.

But Cho criticized its carbon capture targets, arguing they give a pathway for refineries to continue polluting as the state cuts emissions in other areas.

AGRICULTURE

One of the goals is to achieve a 66% reduction in methane emissions from the agriculture sector by 2045. Cattle are a significant source for releasing methane — a potent, planet-warming gas.

The plan's implementation would also mean less reliance by the agriculture sector on fossil fuels as an energy source.

___

This story has been updated to correct the plan's target for aviation fuel demand from electric or hydrogen sources. It is 20%, not 10%.

___

Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

EU-Qatar graft scandal uncovered by year-long, pan-Europe probe, Belgium says

Wed, December 14, 2022 
By Philip Blenkinsop and Charlotte Van Campenhout

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgium's intelligence service worked closely with other European countries for more than a year to uncover the graft scandal now rocking the European Parliament, the justice ministry said.

Prosecutors suspect Greek MEP Eva Kaili and three others accepted bribes from World Cup host Qatar in a bid to influence European Union policymaking in one of the biggest scandals to hit the 27-nation bloc.

Qatar and Kaili have denied any wrongdoing.

"We've been too naïve ... for far too long," a justice ministry spokesperson said, referring to what he called clandestine operations by foreign powers in Belgium.

"We now arm ourselves better against this."

The spokesperson called the investigation "a major case on which State Security has been working for more than a year, in collaboration with foreign intelligence services, to list suspicions of corruption of MEPs by different countries".

The Belgian police posted a picture of the 1.5 million euros in cash it had recovered in raids from Friday to Monday, including a suitcase overflowing with 50 and 100 euro banknotes and two briefcases neatly stacked with 50 euro notes.

Investigators in Italy are combing through seven bank accounts related to the suspects, a source close to the probe said, adding that they found 20,000 euros in cash at a house belonging to one suspect. They also searched an office in Milan, the source said.

DETENTION

Meanwhile Kaili, who is in detention following her arrest last week, will only know on Dec. 22 if she will stay behind bars during the investigation, a source close to the investigation said.

Her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, who says she insists she had nothing to do with the stacks of cash found by police, said Kaili had asked for more time to prepare her detention hearing, initially planned for Wednesday.

"We have been in coordination with her lawyer in Brussels and agreed to request a postponement for a few days to prepare," Dimitrakopoulos said.

The other three suspects arrested and charged last week were meanwhile questioned, as planned, on Wednesday by a three-judge panel.

Kaili's partner Francesco Giorgi, who is a parliamentary assistant will stay in detention, as will Pier Antonio Panzeri, an ex-MEP and founder of a non-profit campaign group, the prosecutor's office said, using their initials.

Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, the secretary-general of a rule of law campaign group, will leave jail but wear an electronic ankle tag.

They can appeal against the decisions.

'DAMAGING'

Reuters could not reach Giorgi, Figa-Talamanca and Panzeri or their lawyers for comment. Non-profit organisations they work with did not respond to emailed requests seeking comment.

The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to strip Kaili, a 44-year old Greek Socialist MEP, of her vice presidency role. Lawmakers have called her to quit the assembly altogether.

"For us, this case is even more sensitive and important as it touches the heart of European democracy," a spokesperson for Belgium's federal public prosecutor's office, Eric Van Duyse, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Although no state was publicly named by prosecutors, a source with knowledge of the case said it was Qatar.

"It is very damaging, I think, for all the politicians that have been fighting so hard to show that we are making our decisions based on the values that we share," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said at a summit in Brussels.

(Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Angeliki Koutantou, Johnny Cotton, Benoit Van Overstraeten; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Jon Boyle, William Maclean)

Eva Kaili's partner confesses role in European Parliament corruption case - sources


European Parliament vice president, Greek socialist Eva Kaili, is seen at the European Parliament in Brussels

Thu, December 15, 2022 
By Charlotte Van Campenhout and Emilio Parodi

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Francesco Giorgi, the partner of ousted European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili, has confessed his role in a Qatar graft scandal, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The confession to Belgian investigators was first reported by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir and the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Giorgi's confession to taking bribes from Qatar to influence European Parliament decisions on Qatar had made "a significant contribution" to the probe underway by Belgian investigating magistrates, one of the sources said.

According to the same source, Giorgi, an EU parliamentary assistant, sought to exonerate his partner Kaili from any wrongdoing. Greek MEP Kaili, who was ousted from her role as vice president of the European Parliament on Monday, has denied any wrongdoing through her lawyer.

The lawyer for Giorgi, who is currently in detention pending further investigation of the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qatar has also denied it had sought to bribe MEPs.

"The State of Qatar categorically rejects any attempts to associate it with accusations of misconduct. Any association of the Qatari government with the reported claims is baseless and gravely misinformed," a Qatari official told Reuters on Thursday in response to questions about alleged Qatari attempts to influence the European Parliament.

In his confession, Giorgi also said he suspected Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella had received money from Qatar, a source close to the investigation said.

Tarabella, who had previously confirmed that his home was searched on Saturday as part of the Belgian investigation, has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Giorgi also said he suspected Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino, in whose office Giorgi worked, had received illicit Qatari funds.

Reuters could not determine if Giorgi had provided any evidence for his allegations against Tarabella and Cozzolino.

Cozzolino did not respond to an emailed request from Reuters for comment but told Italian news agencies: "I am not under investigation. I have not been questioned. I have not been searched, nor has my office been sealed."

The European Parliament on Thursday suspended all work on legislation linked to Qatar, and parliament's president, Roberta Metsola, told EU leaders she would lead reforms to prevent a repeat of a criminal corruption scandal.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout from Brussels, Emilio Parodi from Rome; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Trump Confidant Roger Stone Says He Saw Swirling 'Demon Portal' Above White House

Mary Papenfuss

Thu, December 15, 2022 

Long-time Donald Trump confidant and informal adviser Roger Stone insists he has witnessed a momentous phenomenon: A “demon portal” above President Joe Biden’s White House.

It’s “swirling like a cauldron,” he claimed in an interview earlier this week with conservative radio host Eric Metaxas — who pointed out that the observation by his guest “sounds insane.”

The portal — apparently a direct connection to hell and Satan — was first spotted months ago and even captured on film, according to Stone. “It’s still there,” he declared.

“I think that…a portal, a demonic portal, opened above the White House around the time that the Bidens moved in,” Stone said. “This was brought to my attention by a Christian who lives in north Florida who sent me a bunch of photos, a bunch of documents and also a bunch of notations from the Bible about portals.”

Stone said he was initially skeptical. But he has examined photos of the spot and scrutinized “live cam where you can actually see it in real-time, and there does appear to be something above the White House.”

He also insisted that a police friend of his had examined the spot above the White House, and told him: “You’re not going to believe this, but there’s definitely something there.”

Stone criticized the lack of coverage of the demon portal by the media, which “doesn’t cover a lot of things that are true.”

“The point of course is, prophets, who I do believe, and other holy men, have told me that only prayer can close the demonic portal,” he added. (Stone has said at rallies that God speaks directly to him about politics.) So he prays for that every night, he said.

“But there’s something going on there, there’s no question about it,” Stone emphasized.

Stone critics on social media had a very different take on the “portal.” One commenter on Reddit said the “demon hole” was Stone.

Stone was pardoned by Trump after he was convicted in 2019 of seven felonies, including obstruction of justice and witness tampering during the investigation into Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison.

He’s now being investigated for his role in the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, and is furious Trump didn’t grant him a preemptive pardon in the event he’s charged with a crime linked to the storming of the Capitol last year.

He has admitted advising the violent Proud Boys for years.

Stone told the crew of the documentary “A Storm Foretold” a day before the 2020 election that he was ready for violence. “Fuck the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” he’s heard saying in footage obtained by CNN from filmmakers Christoffer Guldbrandsen and Frederik Marbell. “Shoot to kill. See an antifa? Shoot to kill. Fuck ’em. Done with this bullshit.”

Despite his dark past, Stone has increasingly evoked God — and warned of his version of evil — in appearances at MAGA rallies.

  

DC disciplinary counsel says Rudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked because his 'misconduct' was 'so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again'

Sonam Sheth
Thu, December 15, 2022 


Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A prosecutor for the DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Giuliani should be disbarred.

Hamilton Fox said Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."

The DC Board of Professional Responsibility made a preliminary finding that a lawsuit Giuliani filed in 2020 violated ethics rules.

A prosecutor for the Washington DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Thursday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked.

Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again," disciplinary counsel Hamilton Fox said.

The comments capped several days of disciplinary proceedings in which the Washington DC Board of Professional Responsibility debated imposing sanctions on Giuliani in connection to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The hearings stem from an ethics case brought by the ODC, which focuses on Giuliani's efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania, when he was then-President Donald Trump's personal attorney.

The ODC accused Giuliani of violating Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct by filing a "frivolous" lawsuit seeking to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and engaging in "conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice."

The Board of Professional Responsibility determined in a preliminary finding Thursday that Giuliani violated at least one ethics rule by filing the legal challenge in Pennsylvania. The decision is not binding, and the hearing committee will release consider alternative sanctions proposals before putting out a report with a final recommendation.

"The lawsuit's asking courts to deprive voters of the right to vote, that's not common politics in this country," Fox said at the hearing. "This is not politics. They're trying to ignore the will of the voters. They're trying openly to ask a judge to disqualify, at minimum, 680,000 voters."

He added that "somebody has got a put a stop to" the "notion that anything goes, it's just politics. Anything goes, you just gotta win it."

"We are trying to deter people from engaging in this kind of misconduct," Fox said, referring to the ODC's request that Giuliani be disbarred. "And this miconduct is so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."

"The one thing we can do to try to deter it is to impose the most serious sanction that can be imposed," he continued. "It's not politics. It is part of our duty as lawyers to make sure that people don't use their law licenses to undermine the Constitution of the United States, and disbarment is the only sanction for that."

Giuliani vehemently defended himself after Fox made his comments, accusing the disciplinary counsel of engaging in a "personal attack" without presenting proper evidence.

He also told Robert Bernius, the chairman of the panel overseeing the proceedings, that Fox's statements were an "outrage."

"Mr. Chairman, I would like to personally object to Mr. Fox's attack on me as having tried to undermine American democracy, when there's not a single fact in the record for that argument," Giuliani said. "He has raised no such argument to give us a chance to rebut it during this case. It is a typical or unethical cheap attack not supported by anything in the record, far more so than anything I alleged that you are questioning."

The former mayor struck a similar tone earlier in the proceedings, saying last week that he was "shocked and offended this is happening to me."

Read the original article on Business Insider

UNEXPECTED AND UNUSUAL FOR CHINA
Chinese firms avert delisting as U.S. audit watchdog gets full inspection access


The flags of the United States and China fly in Boston

Thu, December 15, 2022 at 7:32 AM MST·4 min read
By Chris Prentice, Xie Yu and Susan Heavey

NEW YORK/HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. accounting watchdog on Thursday said it has full access to inspect and investigate firms in China for the first time ever, removing the risk that around 200 Chinese companies could be kicked off U.S. stock exchanges.

The statement from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) marks a victory for U.S. regulators and a relief for Chinese firms, including Alibaba, facing delisting amid rocky relations between the world's largest economies. Washington and Beijing have been locked in a heated trade and technology war.

"For the first time in history, we are able to perform full and thorough inspections and investigations to root out potential problems and hold firms accountable to fix them,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Williams.

"This falls into the category of a game changing view of Chinese companies because the threat of their delisting seems to have been eliminated," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial.

However, the relief was not seen in Thursday's trading for U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies, which were higher amid the news, but gave up gains and some ended sharply lower.

U.S.-traded shares of Ecommerce giants Alibaba, JD.com as well as internet behemoth Baidu were down between 3-5% while music streaming provider Tencent Music was down 3.5%, more than the broader market where the S&P 500 Index was down 2.5%. The iShares MSCI China ETF was down 2.2%.

There were some concerns voiced about what issues the audits might uncover.

Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, said the move should take "one of the risks, theoretically off the table of investing in them."

However any issues uncovered due to the more stringent accounting oversight "could be very bad for the sector, especially if there is then no effort to correct it or come clean," he said.

In its statement, the PCAOB said it exercised sole discretion to select firms for audit and had selected two, KPMG Huazhen LLP in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong.

PCAOB staff identified "numerous potential deficiencies" in their inspection work, PCAOB's Williams said, saying the inspection reports will be finalized and made public next year.

"Today’s announcement should not be misconstrued in any way as a clean bill of health for firms in mainland China and Hong Kong," she said.

She declined to specify the types of deficiencies, but said they are in line with those audit inspectors have seen during first-time inspections elsewhere.

PATH TO AUDIT

The PCAOB, which oversees registered public accounting firms around the world, said late last year said that Chinese authorities had prevented the watchdog from completely inspecting and investigating in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Washington and Beijing reached a landmark deal in August to settle a long-running dispute over auditing compliance of U.S.-listed Chinese firms. Authorities in China have long been reluctant to let overseas regulators inspect local accounting firms, citing national security concerns.

U.S. lawmakers in 2020 agreed to legislation that would oust Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges unless they adhere to American auditing standards.

The deal granted PCAOB full access to Chinese audit working papers with no redactions, the right to take testimony from audit company staff in China and sole discretion to select what companies it inspects.

Investors and attorneys have been awaiting news from the PCAOB on whether U.S. inspectors received the access promised.

Sources previously told Reuters U.S. officials had gained "good access" to all the information they requested during the seven-week inspection.

The determination announced on Thursday resets a three-year clock for compliance, said Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the PCAOB.

In a statement, he said: "Chinese authorities will need to give PCAOB "full access for inspections and investigations in 2023 and beyond."

RENEWED COOPERATION

In separate news on Thursday, the Biden administration added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry.

But in a decision that signals renewed cooperation between Washington and Beijing, the Commerce Department also removed a subsidiary of Wuxi Biologics, a company that makes ingredients for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, and 25 other Chinese entities from the so-called unverified list, thanks to successful site visits.

The United States and China have been seeking to repair ties following an August visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which produced a new fracture in relations and led China to cancel cooperation with the United States across a range of areas.

Since then, the two countries have gradually restored communications, first with a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, followed by lower-level meetings and a resumption of talks on climate change and other topics.

(Reporting by Xie Yu, Chris Prentice and Susan Heavey, Additional reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Alex Alper Don Durfee and Chuck Mikolajczak, editing by Megan Davies, Nick Zieminski and Chizu Nomiyama)