Moscow’s message to Bulgarian journalist: ‘Do not ever come to Russia’

‘This decision is only a warning’ for Christo Grozev, says Russian envoy to Sofia

. 29/12/2022 Thursday


Photo credit: Official twitter account of Christo Grozev

Russia’s ambassador to Sofia told a Bulgarian journalist Thursday that he can go anywhere but Russia after the envoy was summoned to Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry to explain Moscow’s search warrant for Christo Grozev.

Eleonora Mitrofanova was summoned to make a statement about Moscow’s warrant for Grozev.

Russia issued the warrant for the journalist who works for the Bellingcat website, which conducts international research.

The ministry did not make a statement about the meeting but Mitrofanova spoke to reporters and said: "We are not looking for Christo Grozev all over the world. Let him go wherever he wants. We just told him: ‘Do not ever come to Russia.’”

“This decision is only a warning. The Internal Ministry of Russia never explains the reasons for similar decisions it has made,” she said.

After Mitrofanova's statement, Grozev wrote on Twitter: "So they made a decision to call me to inform me that they don't want me."

The leader of five pro-EU and NATO political parties in parliament requested that Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Milkov be summoned to parliament and report on the situation related to the Grozev incident during the first session on Jan. 3.

President Rumen Radev and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which continues the political tradition of the former Communist Party in parliament, as well as the Populist Rebirth Party, did not comment on the Grozev incident.

Prime Minister Gilib Donev conveyed in a statement Thursday that the government is in constant contact with the journalist.

Grozev is known for his research at Bellingcat on the poisoning of Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, former Russian spy Sergey Skripal, his daughter, Yulia, and Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev by Russian agents and other assassination attempts.

- Problems of teaching Bulgarian in occupied territories in Ukraine

Regarding the ban on teaching the Bulgarian language in schools in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, where a large Bulgarian diaspora lives, Mitrofanova said: "Education in 79 foreign languages is conducted in Russia, which is multinational.”

“There are not enough Bulgarian teachers in the territory of Russia.

“Many people have emigrated in areas where there are military activities, so some schools are operating with limited capacity,” she said.

She noted that necessary research will be carried out on the issue and information will be delivered to Bulgarian authorities.

RIP

A Tribute to Pelé

The Brazilian they called The King was less a footballer and more an artist, whose skills made him a global brand

By Alex Bellos

29 Dec 2022

ESQUIRE

BETTMANNGETTY IMAGES

On 29 December 2022, Brazilian football legend Pelé sadly passed away at the age of 82. In this piece from 2014, writer Alex Bellos pays tribute to the three-time World Cup winner.

Even though Pelé scored more career goals than any other footballer, his most memorable World Cup moments were his misses.

In the first minute of his first appearance in the tournament, against the USSR in 1958, he hit the bar – announcing to the world that even though he was only 17, the youngest player in the tournament, he was destined to be its star.

Brazil’s joyful, attacking style of play eventually led them to the 1958 title, and captured the hearts of football fans everywhere.

Thus began the country’s first period of international dominance, when the Seleção won three World Cups in 12 years.

Pelé was the team’s talisman, ambassador and icon – a personification of what was best not just in Brazilian football, but in all of football.

In 1970, his final World Cup, again it was Pelé’s misses that we remember. The audacious chip from the halfway line in the opening game against Czechoslovakia.

The mesmerising dummy in the semi final against Uruguay. It doesn’t matter that the ball went narrowly wide in both cases.

His playfulness and creativity were intoxicating. Pelé was an artist, whose vision of the game and technical skills enabled him to rise above his peers.

Hence his nickname, The King. As a player, Pelé had it all. Small but with an athlete’s perfect physique, he could shoot with both feet, use his head, dribble, pass and defend.

He was even a good goalkeeper, despite his size, and was the reserve keeper for Santos, his club side, for whom he played in goal four times.

Pelé also had timing – not just on the pitch but also in the sweep of history. The 1970 World Cup may have been his swansong, yet it was also the first World Cup to be broadcast in colour.

Football as a televised spectacle was born with Pelé and his golden-shirted teammates.

They provided an indelible first impression – a glamour and romanticism that no subsequent team has attained.

Pelé’s legend is also enhanced by his name, a nickname of disputed origin, that sounds like it was an international brand name thought up to be pronounceable in all languages.

It is both child-like and an intimidating nom de guerre. A brand name it did become.

Pelé was one of the first footballers to use sporting fame as a commercial launching pad: he registered his name as a trademark, sponsored products and invested in business ventures.

In the Seventies, a survey showed his was the second most recognised brand name in Europe after Coca-Cola. Pelé had talent; he also worked hard.

Despite being the most famous footballer in history, he never went off the rails. In retirement he has never stopped.

He advertises many products – some would say too many – and spends his life semi-permanently on tour.

Even though he stopped playing almost 40 years ago, his face remains one of the most widely recognised in world sport.

Yes, Government is A Business. No, You’re Not The Customer.

BY THOMAS KNAPPFacebook

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On December 15,  the US Government Accountability Office released a report on the Internal Revenue Service’s failings in “providing customer service to taxpayers.”

Are taxpayers “customers?” Let’s have a look at that idea.

“For years, George Ochenski writes at CounterPunch, “we’ve all heard politicians claim they should ‘run government like a business.’ But of course government isn’t a business …. the governor’s ‘duties’ are not to make a profit for himself and his corporate shareholders as he did in business. Rather it is to serve the people of the state and uphold his oath of office to protect and honor our Constitution.”

That’s a riff on the old myth enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence:  “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed …”

In reality, government can be run like a business, and government is run like a business, because government is a business.

But, as with broadcast television, social media platforms, and “free” Internet services, the taxpayer or “average citizen” is government’s product, not its customer.

What kind of business is government? The best metaphor is that of a sprawling ranch, raising various types of livestock, each of which may be put to various uses.

As a taxpayer, you’re a cow to be milked, or a hen whose eggs are gathered, or a sheep who’s periodically sheared.

As a prospective incarcerated “criminal,” you’re a pet whose kenneling is paid for by those cows and hens.

As a prospective conscript, you’re a steer or hog or fryer being fattened up for future slaughter.

And as a prospective parent, you’re “breedstock,” charged with keeping the rancher supplied with new generations of cows, hens, pets, steers, hogs, and fryers.

Those are the roles played by members of society’s productive class — the people who make useful things and provide useful services.

Government is the rancher.

The customer is the political class — those who buy you, and everything you produce that the rancher doesn’t eat himself,  paying the rancher with both material wealth and continued power to run the Lazy G Ranch operation. Government employees. “Defense” and “prison” and other “ranch services” contractors. Ostensibly “private” businesses seeking preferential treatment from the rancher for their own enterprises.

Do you benefit at all? Well, yes, in the same sense that the hogs get slopped, the steers get grain and grazing space, etc. But to the extent that this is a trade proposition, let’s face it: You’re working for chicken feed.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

Medicine shortage worsens in France

Patients struggling to find paracetamol, amoxicillin at most pharmacies

Umit Donmez |30.12.2022


PARIS

The shortage of medicines in France risks being aggravated in the winter amid a triple epidemic of coronavirus, flu, and bronchiolitis.

Patients are struggling to find pediatric forms of paracetamol and amoxicillin in most pharmacies.

Souhil Cherraben, a pharmacist in the Parisian region of Yvelines, told Anadolu Agency that the shortage that started months ago is affecting a lot of medicines.

He said pediatric forms of Doliprane are becoming hard to find because of supply issues.

"There is not a total shortage but we only receive small quantities," said Cherraben. "Serious shortages affect amoxicillin which is an antibiotic for children."

He explained solutions pharmacies have found to overcome the shortage.

"The shortage started at first for amoxicillin syrup. The pharmacies tried to find solutions by replacing it with amoxicillin tablets for adults -- which can be given to children when cut in half. As a result, we have neither amoxicillin syrup nor amoxicillin tablets," he said.

Cherraben said doctors were told to prescribe other antibiotics, thus there are no antibiotics left -- amoxicillin nor other types.

The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products, ANSM, confirmed last week the existence of a supply issue regarding antibiotics prescribed mostly to children.

The Health Ministry said on Dec. 14 at a news conference that shortages of antibiotics and paracetamol for children will persist for a couple of weeks and urged the country to have patience.

ANSM announced measures to respond to the shortage, including the diversification of import sources.

The shortage does not only affect pediatric medicines. In 2022, almost 3,000 medicines are subject to supply issues, according to ANSM.

Health Minister Francois Braun warned Wednesday against a "week of danger," explaining that the spread of the flu provokes "an explosion of cases," some ending in resuscitation units, while hospitals lack a sufficient number of beds.

France is not the only country suffering from supply issues. Germany and UK are facing similar struggles.

China decided to increase its production and reduce the exportation of medicines while increasing its importation -- which may worsen the situation in France and Europe.

Remi Salomon, president of the Conference of Presidents of Medical Establishment Commissions of University Hospitals in France wrote on Twitter: "The current COVID wave in China will likely worsen our supply issues for many medicines."

Salomon underlined the need to "relocate production in France" to avoid shortages and health disasters in the future.

In March, the founders of the Observatory of Transparency in Medicines Policy, Pauline Londeix, and Jerome Martin, wrote an article for the Le Monde newspaper where they called for the need to produce medicines in France.

"For the production of pharmaceutical raw materials, France and the entire planet depend on active ingredients produced in South and East Asia," they wrote, raising once more "the vital question of pharmaceutical products in Europe."

Londeix and Martin also cited the war in Ukraine and called for a "partially public production" in France and in Europe to reduce dependence on multinational pharmaceutical companies.

*Writing by Nur Asena Erturk

Nobody loved you, 2022

From devastating floods in Pakistan to Italy’s far-right PM to overturning Roe v Wade, this was a year of extremes


Adam Ramsay
30 December 2022,

Some of the results of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which started on 24 February |
Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo

How do you turn 365 days experienced by eight billion people – and billions more other beings – into some kind of story?

Maybe you start with some events?

In which case, 2022 was the year that Covid vaccines kicked in. Daily global deaths hit 77,000 on 7 February, and have declined fairly steadily ever since. It was the year Russia invaded Ukraine, the first war between major European powers since 1945.

The Horn of Africa experienced its worst drought in 40 years, after an unprecedented fifth consecutive failed rainy season. The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front agreed a peace deal after two years of a civil war that may have killed half a million people.

Pakistan drowned in the most severe floods in modern history.

It was likely the worst year ever for Amazon deforestation. It was also the year that Jair Bolsonaro’s chainsaw Brazilian presidency came to a fiery end, defeated by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a journey that took the former president and great defender of the rainforest from jail on trumped-up (perhaps we should say ‘Bolsonaroed-up’?) charges back to high office.

It was the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since the UN started keeping data, as Israel swung to the far right. The war in Yemen paused in a ceasefire over the summer, but killing returned in October. Azerbaijan attacked Armenia, taking advantage of the latter’s protector in Moscow being distracted.

A neo-fascist became Italian prime minister for the first time since 1945


Inflation surged. Crops failed. A neo-fascist became the Italian prime minister for the first time since 1945. Far-right leader Viktor Orbán won an unprecedented fifth term, becoming Hungary’s longest-serving prime minister. The Philippines elected the son of its former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Jr (known as ‘Bongbong’), as president, despite ongoing allegations of corruption.

At the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping secured a record third term as China’s paramount leader, and managed to change the party’s constitution to enshrine his rule. But shortly afterwards, the country exploded into protests on a scale not seen in decades – firstly about its zero Covid policy, but also about so much more.

Iran, too, revolted. The Saudi government executed 80 people for “holding deviant beliefs” – the biggest mass execution in recent years – and Joe Biden gave the country’s crown prince immunity from prosecution for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated. Emmanuel Macron defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen – but ran his own grim, racist campaign against France’s Muslims.

2022 was probably the worst year for deforestation of the Amazon |
REUTERS / Amanda Perobelli / Alamy Stock Photo

The US Supreme Court, now controlled by conservatives, overturned the abortion rights of Roe v Wade and slashed the power of the Environment Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions. Trump’s Republicans were gloriously snubbed in the US midterm elections, failing to take control of the Senate. Gustavo Petro was elected as Colombia’s first left-wing president.

It was the first year that Britain had three prime ministers since George Canning died shortly after taking up office in 1827. Sinn Féin became the first nationalist party to win the most seats in a Northern Irish Assembly election. The SNP/Green government in Scotland proposed – and had snubbed by the Supreme Court – their plans for an independence referendum in 2023. The UK’s longest-serving monarch died.

Profits at the world’s seven biggest oil firms soared to $150bn as demand spiked post-Covid and supply shrank due to sanctions on Russia. But, more broadly, capital struggled: after global corporate profits grew by two-thirds in the 2021/22 financial year, they are expected to dip when this financial year comes to an end next spring. The ten richest people in the world lost more than $200bn, partly because of Elon Musk’s various escapades, but also because inflation is eating consumer demand.

COP27 committed the world to “a pathway of devastation”, the football world cup committed sports-washing.

Syabira Yusoff won ‘Bake Off’, AJ won ‘Throw Down’ and Taylor Swift won pop. ‘Stranger Things’ returned. Mikhail Gorbachev and Jiang Zemin died, and so did Christie McVie.

The world’s population grew to 8 billion … the number of smartphone users reached 6.6 billion

Or, instead of events, I could look at some key government policy changes.

The EU started to deliver its vast post-Covid stimulus package, worth more than two trillion euros – about 18 times the size of the postwar Marshall Plan, in real terms. The aim is to deliver a transition to a low-carbon economy and a transfer of funds from richer to poorer countries. As Italian philosopher Lorenzo Marsili put it to me, the package likely “saved the EU”.

The US started to deliver its vast post-Covid stimulus package, the Inflation Reduction Act. It, too, will pump billions into green infrastructure. As did Japan. As did China.

In the UK, on the other hand, our government announced no such package, instead proposing future cuts.

In June, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and the national right to abortion 
Bob Korn / Alamy Stock Photo


Or we could look at trends.

After a rapid surge in emissions as the world escaped lockdowns in 2021, 2022 saw a slight further increase, with increases in US pollution not quite offset by reductions in China’s making it the most carbon-polluting year ever.

The world’s population grew to eight billion, and the proportion who live in cities hit 57%. The number of smartphone users worldwide reached 6.6 billion. The global infant mortality rate fell to 26 for every 1,000 live births. The global literacy rate grew to 87%.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s World Inequality Report 2022, “10% of the world's population owns 76% of the wealth, takes in 52% of income, and accounts for 48% of global carbon emissions”. While accurate figures are hard to calculate, it seems likely that the richest 1% continue to have more wealth than the rest of the world combined, trillions of which they continue to hide in tax havens.

Incidents of hate crimes against trans people soared in the UK. And also in the US, where a mass shooter targeted a drag show at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Two of the five people killed were trans. The club’s co-owner was clear in connecting the mass murder to the grim transphobic moral panic, which grew this year.

My own experience: Ireland, Turkey and Italy

Or I could tell you about my experience of the last 12 months. For me, as for many people, 2022 was the year I got out and about again.

In spring, I went to Northern Ireland for the election (and for a wee holiday with my wife and daughter) and watched the latest stage of the decline of Northern Irish unionism up close.

Perhaps the simplest thing I saw while there was how the British state has utterly failed to make a case for itself. Sure, Brexit has done damage. But perhaps austerity even more so.

Twenty years ago, when I first started to speak to people on the streets of Northern Ireland, from Belfast to Derry, the NHS and unemployment benefits were powerful reasons for staying under Whitehall’s umbrella, however you identified. Now, with both fraying, those arguments are weakening.

The election didn’t produce an executive because the DUP refuses to serve under Sinn Féin (as the Good Friday Agreement requires it to). And so the people of Northern Ireland will go back to the polls in 2023, to confirm that, yes, they really meant it.

Pakistan experienced its worst floods in modern history, affecting a third of the country |
Akhtar Soomro / Reuters/ Alamy Stock Photo

In autumn, an openDemocracy ‘away day’ took us to Europe’s biggest metropolis.

The best way to get a sense of the scale of modern Istanbul is from a boat. Take a ferry west from Eminönü pier in the ancient city and the narrow Bosphorus soon opens into the Sea of Marmara.

On both Asian and European shores, previously hidden curves and slopes come into view. And from each one, as far as you can see, protrude a thousand tower blocks. At night, after the sun has set over Europe, light from the lamps of millions of living rooms refracts through the warm sea air, and the land appears to twinkle.

This is Europe’s New York – with its skyscrapers, deep-sea ports and nine million people; built on top of the Middle East’s Budapest – a 19th-century imperial capital, with splendid palaces, colonial plunder and two million people; built on top of the Rome of the East, with its ancient sites and its four million people. It is both Europe and West Asia’s biggest city, the capital of the Middle East and the crown of the Balkans.

Only – unlike the US, Italy, Hungary or, for that matter, the UK – Turkey is a young country, with nearly a quarter of its population aged under 15, and less than 10% over 65.

It represents, in other words, a future that we do not. Increasingly, places like this are core, places like Britain are fringe.

This year, Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan briefly fell behind in the polls for the general election next June. Although I met plenty of people in Istanbul furious with Erdoğan, I didn’t find anyone excited about the opposition or with anything else to vote for. Everyone with a vision is in jail; the remaining alternatives (rather like in Hungary) look like a weaker version of the devil you know. I imagine Erdoğan will be re-elected.

Later in autumn, in Italy, I explored how alienation from politics is a direct road to the far right, how the sense that ‘they’re all the same’, that ‘nothing ever changes’, leaves a carcass of distrust in democracy on which neo-fascists feed.

But I also met the resistance: more and more young people, young women in particular, who can see that there are real differences between the futures ahead of us, that there is a version of tomorrow we must fight against. And one worth working for.

We just have to build it ourselves.

I’ll look forward to doing that with all of you in 2023.

Amid tight security, Brazil hosts ‘Lulapalooza’ to toast Lula inauguration

ByAFP
PublishedDecember 30, 2022

Peruvian shaman with a poster of Brazil's soon-to-be President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 

- Copyright AFP Cris BOURONCLE
Ramon SAHMKOW

Brazil’s leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returns triumphant to the presidency Sunday after years out in the cold, with plans for a spectacular inauguration amid ultra-tight security.

Some 300,000 revelers and more than a dozen heads of state and government are expected to attend the swearing-in extravaganza in the usually tranquil capital Brasilia.

Dubbed “Lulapalooza” on social media, the event will combine institutional rites with a mega concert gathering some of Brazil’s biggest musical stars.

A failed Christmas Eve bomb attack had threatened to put a damper on proceedings, prompting a never-before-seen security deployment for a Brazilian presidential inauguration.

Lula, 77, will officially become president for a third, non-successive, term after taking the oath with his vice-president Geraldo Alckmin at a ceremony in Congress.

But the moment his followers are waiting for is when he ascends the stage at Planalto palace, the seat of the presidency.

There, Lula is set to receive the presidential sash, a green-and-yellow silk band embroidered in gold and diamonds.

Normally, the new head of state receives the sash from his predecessor, but outgoing far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro — who has gone unusually silent since his electoral loss to Lula in October — has not said whether he would attend the ceremony.

Bolsonaro has not publicly accepted defeat nor congratulated Lula on his narrow victory.

Lula managed to garner 50.9 percent of the vote after a deeply divisive campaign in which Bolsonaro hammered, with some success, on his rival’s corruption conviction — since overturned in court.

Brazilian media has suggested Bolsonaro may even leave the country to celebrate the new year in Florida in the United States.

– Security fears –

The state of Brasilia has said it will deploy “100 percent” of its police force — some 8,000 officers — for Sunday’s celebrations amid fears of disturbances following the failed bomb attack in Brasilia a week before the inauguration.

Authorities arrested a Bolsonaro follower on terror charges after he allegedly placed explosives in a fuel truck near Brasilia’s airport on Christmas Eve, hoping to sow “chaos” ahead of the inauguration.

The suspect told authorities they wanted to “prevent the establishment of communism in Brazil” under Lula. Police found a cache of weapons at his home.

In addition to the Brasilia deployment, the federal police has said more than 1,000 of its officers would perform “intelligence and security” tasks related to Sunday’s event — the largest contingent ever for a presidential investiture.

After Bolsonaro’s defeat, supporters blocked roads and demonstrated outside military barracks to demand the armed forces prevent Lula’s inauguration.

On December 12, some of them set fire to vehicles and clashed with police in Brasilia.

By Thursday, hundreds were still gathered outside the army headquarters in the capital, demanding a military intervention.

Lula backers have expressed fear on social media of riots or attacks on inauguration day, but Lula’s future security minister Flavio Dino has sought to give assurances the event will be “safe” and “peaceful,” encouraging Brazilians to join the celebrations.

A Supreme Court judge on Wednesday suspended the right to bear arms for most civilians until the day after the ceremony.

– ‘Lulapalooza’ –

Given security concerns and predictions of rain, it was not clear whether Lula would do the traditional presidential street parade in a vintage convertible, as is the custom, or in a closed, armored car.

The decision will be taken “in the moment,” Dino told journalists.

At least 53 foreign delegations including 17 heads of state or government are scheduled to attend the inauguration — a historically large turnout.

Among them will be the presidents of Germany, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, and Spain’s King Felipe VI.

US President Joe Biden, who as vice president in 2015 attended the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff, is sending his Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

The public will gather on the Esplanade of Ministries, so called for being surrounded by government buildings and Congress.

There will be two giant stages decorated in the colors of the Brazilian flag, where more than 60 popular artists including Samba legend Martinho da Vila are due to perform.

“We will have a great popular festival”, promised future first lady Rosangela da Silva, who organized the so-called “Festival of the Future” since popularly renamed “Lulapalooza” on social media after the American Lollapalooza music event.

Brazil’s ‘Janja’ wants to give ‘new meaning’ to first lady role

By AFP

December 30, 2022

Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife, Rosangela da Silva, share a kiss after his election win - Copyright AFP NELSON ALMEIDA

Eugenia LOGIURATTO

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva credits his wife of mere months, Rosangela da Silva, with giving him new life.

Da Silva, a 56-year-old sociologist and left-wing activist widely known by her nickname “Janja,” was front-and-center in her husband’s election campaign and in planning his inauguration on Sunday.

She has injected fervor and much affection into the job, tenderly holding her husband’s victory speech as he addressed a sea of euphoric supporters after his October election victory, and organizing a major music party for some 300,000 expected to join Sunday’s celebrations.

Da Silva married Lula, 77, a twice-widowed cancer survivor, in May.

“I am as in love as if I were 20 years old,” the president has said of his wife, a long-time member of his Workers’ Party.

Their age difference seems to have breathed new energy into Lula, whose first wife, Maria de Lourdes, died in 1971. In 2017, he lost his second wife of four decades, Marisa Leticia Rocco, to a stroke.

“When you lose your wife, and you think, well, my life has no more meaning, suddenly a person appears who makes you feel like you want to live again,” he told Time magazine in an interview published just before he remarried.

The septuagenarian politician links his political rebirth to his late-life love affair.

“I’m here, standing strong, in love again, crazy about my wife,” he told the crowd Sunday. “She’s the one who will give me strength to confront all obstacles.”

– A kiss outside prison –

Da Silva was born in the south of Brazil and earned a sociology degree from the university in Curitiba, capital of Parana state.

In 1983 she joined the Workers’ Party, which Lula had cofounded two years earlier.

Brazilian media reports say the two have known each other for decades, but Lula’s press people said their romance began only in late 2017 at an event with left-leaning artists.

The love affair between the smiling woman with long chestnut hair and the aging lion of the Brazilian left became widely known in May 2019.

At the time, Lula was in prison — jailed on controversial corruption charges that were later annulled by the Supreme Court.

“Lula is in love, and the first thing he wants to do when he gets out of prison is get married,” one of his lawyers said after visiting him then.

In the end, the two wed only this year. The 200 guests included celebrities like singer Gilberto Gil, who had served as Lula’s culture minister.

While Lula was in prison, Janja would pen affectionate tweets about him. “All I want to do is hug you and cuddle with you nonstop,” she wrote on his 74th birthday.

In November 2019, shortly after Lula’s release from prison, they shared a kiss before a crowd gathered outside the prison in Curitiba, where Lula had spent 18 months locked up.

– ‘New meaning’ –

While active in Lula’s campaign, on stage and on social media, Da Silva is very private about her personal life. The magazine Veja says she was previously married for more than 10 years and has no children.

Starting January 1, she will be Brazil’s first lady.

“I want to give new meaning to the role of first lady, by focusing on topics that are priorities for women, such as food insecurity or domestic violence,” she said in August.

Viasat secures $325m contract by US Special Operations Command

The current IDIQ is an extension of a $350m contract awarded to Viasat in 2017.

Viasat Inc. has been awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract award worth up to $325m over a five-year period to support the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). This sole-source IDIQ is an extension of a $350m IDIQ contract awarded to Viasat in 2017.

Under the contract award, Viasat will continue to provide advanced mission equipment, services and support to sustain and improve situational awareness, integration, terrestrial networking, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), tactical satellite communications, information assurance and network management capabilities of Special Operations Forces.

Speaking about the contract, Craig Miller, president of Viasat Government Systems, said: “This contract award reaffirms Viasat’s deep commitment and partnership with the SOCOM community to understand and address the capability needs of forces for the most complex missions. Networking and communications needs across the modern battlespace are continually evolving and we’re excited to help SOCOM maintain the advantage with solutions that deliver the performance, flexibility and resilience Special Operations Forces require to successfully operate independently and interoperate effectively with joint forces.”

The IDIQ contract vehicle is intentionally flexible to allow for the evolution and adaption required to shift with rapid technology developments and the dynamic mission requirements of SOCOM forces. This structure is important to enabling new concepts of operation (CONOPS) and achieving desired mission effects through rapidly deployed technologies, systems and services.

 

Besides Twitter, U.S. gov't meddles in more platforms' content

(Xinhua) 15:32, December 30, 2022

BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- After a series of "Twitter Files" over the weeks disclosing the U.S. government's involvement in the social media company's content moderation, the latest installment came as the fresh Twitter owner Elon Musk said Tuesday that the same is happening in "every social media company."

"Google frequently makes links disappear, for example," said Musk, who purchased Twitter two months ago and later decided to release the Twitter Files, namely internal documents such as emails and chat logs between employees.

He made the claims in a response to Matt Taibbi, one of the freelance journalists to whom Musk gave the files exclusively to delve into and publish excerpts and their findings on Twitter. Musk has not made the entire files public.

Long before the Twitter Files disclosure, U.S. security and intelligence departments have been accused of pressuring tech firms to manipulate public opinion by censoring content, blacklisting or whitelisting certain users and cultivating accounts for political aims.

TWITTER FILES

As the massive files unfold how Twitter handled high-profile events, like the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government agencies, not least the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, is reported to have long and deeply involved in Twitter's content moderation.

Dubbing Twitter "the FBI subsidiary," Taibbi said the FBI, with "constant and pervasive" contact with Twitter, gave the platform "a surprisingly high number" of requests to take action on "election misinformation," even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.

Agencies like the FBI and the DHS regularly send social media content to Twitter for moderation, he added.

The FBI also pushed Twitter to suppress a news story about the laptop of Hunter Biden, son of then presidential candidate Joe Biden, during the 2020 election by warning it could be part of a Russian trick, according to Michael Shellenberger, another journalist with access to the files.

In a statement in response to the disclosures, the FBI said, "it is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency."

In his latest reveal on Dec. 25, Taibbi said the U.S. government was "in constant contact not just with Twitter but with virtually every major tech firm," including Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit and Pinterest.

"FORMALIZED" CENSORSHIP

In August, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a podcast that weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Facebook had censored the Hunter Biden story after an FBI misinformation warning of "Russian propaganda."

The interference may not be an incident, but a result of institutionalized government censorship. As an October report by U.S. news organization The Intercept has found, through "a formalized process," government officials directly flag content on Facebook or Instagram, and request that it be throttled or suppressed.

In the coming years, the DHS plans to target information it deems "inaccurate" on topics including the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the U.S. support for Ukraine, the report said, citing a leaked draft copy of the DHS.

The "inaccuracy" identification, which is inherently subjective, may provide a broad opening for DHS officials to "make politically motivated determinations about what constitutes dangerous speech," the authors said.

"Behind closed doors, and through pressure on private platforms, the U.S. government has used its power to try to shape online discourse," said the report, which analyzed years of internal DHS documents.

GOV'T-NURTURED USERS

The U.S. government has even nurtured accounts as part of its propaganda.

Research published in August by the Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika, a social media analytics firm, has exposed years-long covert influence operations for promoting pro-Western narratives on social media platforms while opposing several other countries, with the role of the U.S. government under scrutiny.

The investigation revealed an interconnected web of accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and five other social media platforms that "used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia."

It also showed the assets identified by Twitter and Meta -- the parent company of Facebook and Instagram -- created fake personas, posed as independent media outlets, leveraged memes and short-form videos, attempted to start hashtag campaigns, and launched online petitions.

Lee Fang, another journalist with access to the Twitter Files, has found similar schemes. He said that Twitter worked with the Pentagon from 2017 to 2020 to promote Arab-language accounts to tilt public opinion in favor of U.S. policies.

Twitter offered approval and protection to the U.S. military's network of social media accounts and online personas, "whitelisting" a batch of accounts at the request of the government, Fang said.

There is no immediate response from the Pentagon.

Back to the early 2000s, U.S. government agencies, particularly the DHS and the FBI, have been "in this business of arbitrating what is true and false," Will Thibeau and Erin Dwinell, researchers with the Heritage Foundation, wrote in a November commentary titled "When government colludes with big tech to censor Americans."

"However, today's censorship and propaganda are growing at a rate we've never experienced before. Big tech gives our government the tools to be dangerously effective in their efforts," they warned.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)

Can Energy Justice Be Measured? A New Research Project Aims to Do Just That

The Energy Equity Project offers a national roadmap for how to eliminate disparities in clean energy access.

December 30, 2022 by Energy News Network 


By Eleanore Catolico

This article is co-published by the Energy News Network and Planet Detroit with support from the Race and Justice Reporting Initiative at the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University.

It’s only been a few months since a punishing heatwave cloaked Detroit and the surrounding suburbs. Temperatures rose above 90 degrees for several consecutive days, which ignited warnings about the risks of dangerous illnesses like heatstroke and heat exhaustion.

Climate change makes severe weather events like floods and intense heat waves more likely. Researchers predict these life-threatening heat spells may become commonplace in future summers.

But as policymakers launch initiatives toward large-scale clean energy adoption, researchers and activists are concerned that the energy transition may be unjust and inequitable in low-income, predominantly Black and Brown cities like Detroit.

That’s why University of Michigan researchers recently released The Energy Equity Project, a new national framework that offers guidance on measuring energy equity. The project also includes 148 proposed energy equity measures, along with resources and guidance on implementing them. Dozens of academics, energy justice advocates, consultants, and utility experts, among others, also helped define the project’s key principles and scope.

Energy equity prioritizes the needs and perspectives of frontline communities — those who suffer the worst effects of climate change — so they may reap the benefits of ongoing climate investments, like aid for weatherization projects which help fortify homes and businesses against the pummeling of the elements, for example.

“I think people realized, ‘Okay, we’re gonna have a ton of investments pouring into the clean energy transition. And we don’t understand the equity implications of those,” said Justin Schott, the Energy Equity Project’s project manager. (Editor’s note: Schott is a Planet Detroit advisory board member).

“We don’t have a way of ensuring that those won’t continue to just enrich whiter and wealthier communities that have basically secured nearly all of the benefits so far, from energy efficiency and clean energy,” Schott added.

Such a blueprint may prove more urgent than ever as the Inflation Reduction Act, widely considered a watershed moment in climate justice legislation, includes $369 billion in investments and tax credits in clean energy and electric vehicles.

The project is based on four key guiding principles:Recognition — acknowledging the cumulative environmental hazards BIPOC communities faced over time while also understanding their vulnerability and needs across the energy system.
Procedural — how community perspectives are integrated into the design, implementation and evaluation of energy programs and other decision-making processes.
Distributional — how the energy system’s benefits and harms are distributed.
Restorative — pathways on healing, accountability, and resilience.

According to Schott, one big takeaway is clear: A flattened, one-size-fits-all approach won’t remedy the disparities in the energy system as the climate crisis surges.

“Equity considerations need to be broad and holistic,” Schott told Planet Detroit.

As companies and lawmakers tout the electric vehicle manufacturing revolution, the primary demographic of EV buyers in 2019 was middle-aged White men who make more than $100,000 each year, hold at least a college degree, and own another vehicle, an Electric Vehicle Council’s Fuel Institute analysis found last year.

Schott points to the billions of tax credits set to go to rich households for things like solar, electric vehicles and heat pumps. And while some incentives target lower-income households, Schott is dubious that the money will reach them.

“There’s still [no] evidence at this point that they’ll really be able to take advantage of this for a variety of reasons.”

The framework asks big questions about how the energy system works and how it can be transformed: Who owns clean energy? How easy is it for low-income households and renters to enroll in energy efficiency programs, which reduce energy waste and costs? What can be done to better support people already living in chronic poverty and facing increasingly more expensive energy bills?

For many Detroiters, energy issues remain top of mind. A recent power outage saw thousands of DTE residential customers go for up to a week without electricity. Outages have quickly become recurring events, illustrating the energy grid’s lack of resilience after extreme storms. Energy justice activists are fighting another proposed rate increase this fall.

Amy Bandyk, the executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, said low-income communities and BIPOC communities deal with more frequent power outages, less investment into improving their utility service, and also pay more for utility service compared to other communities.

“To even begin to fix this situation, utilities, regulators and others need new approaches that take the potential impacts on these communities into account and can be used to evaluate every policy decision,” she said. “Measurable frameworks like the one developed by the Energy Equity Project are exactly what utility ratepayers, particularly lower-income ratepayers, need to address the poor reliability and high rates that they currently face.”

An onslaught of energy challenges hit close to home. In Detroit, residents pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country. And across the metro area, families with low-income backgrounds use about 10% of their monthly earnings toward energy bills, one analysis found. Anything above 6% is considered a substantial financial burden. Such bills remain unaffordable for a large swath of Black and Latinx families living in the area.

But zeroing in on a single measure like energy affordability, Schott said, isn’t the answer.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of individual utilities and states that are saying, ‘Okay, what’s the one metric we should adopt for energy equity? Is that energy burden, the percentage of income that people are spending on energy? Do we just need to make it affordable?’ And our response to that is no — equity is multi-dimensional.”

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The project also includes an interactive mapping feature, which is among a number of state and federal mapping efforts attempting to visualize environmental justice issues. The mapping tool is expected to be released later this year.

Using a mix of data, including census estimates, this tool allows users to better understand the magnitude and geography of energy inequities occurring across the United States. For example, a user will be able to figure out which BIPOC communities may also face hurricane risk or if they have a high energy burden.

But Schott acknowledges the project does have some limitations.

“So originally, we envisioned having a single equity score, and you could just click on any census tract and get a percentile from it,” Schott said. “We weren’t able to do that because there’s not enough data to really represent all of the equity dimensions. So the first limitation is, we’re really short on data.”

“For instance, we might want to look at demographic representation of [public utility] commissioners by race or by gender. And that doesn’t exist now,” he added. “So a lot of this is kind of opening up research questions to help fill these data gaps that we have.”

For now, the framework’s 200-plus pages may be dense and overly complicated reading for someone who doesn’t have subject matter expertise.

“Given the complexity of the tool, we’re not expecting people to just pick up the framework and be able to use it independently,” Schott said.

Schott said the Energy Equity Project is offering training over the next year to help people navigate the project and develop clean energy goals for their communities.

The project is essentially an accountability tool, Schott said, aiming to equip frontline communities in their ongoing fight for energy justice.

“They’ll be able to use this, I think, really to validate what they’ve known for a long time, which is that they have faced these disparities, disproportionate share of burdens and receive very few of the benefits of energy,” Schott said.

This article first appeared on Energy News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

—

Consortium News

The Establishment Rather Hates Us

Actions in 2022 by NewsGuard and PayPal and inquiries by a British official proved that powerful establishment actors oppose Consortium News. Help us show them they are wrong.


PayPal headquarters in San Jose, Calif. (Wikipedia)

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
December 30, 2022

For Consortium News the year 2022 was marked by notable achievements, some of which caught the attention of the Establishment.

In March, three months after we began reporting on Russia’s intervention in the Ukrainian civil war, the rating agency NewsGuard wrote to accuse CN of publishing “false content” for reporting on the 2014 Kiev coup and the role of neo-Nazism in the country.

In May, PayPal permanently banned Consortium News from using its money transfer system. PayPal steadfastly refused to say why. But its user agreement prohibits spreading “misinformation,” and while information is our only trade, it was logical to conclude, given the hysteria surrounding the subject, that it objected to our Ukraine coverage.

In June, The GrayZone reported on leaked emails which showed that a British Foreign Office official had contacted Nina Jankowicz, who at the time was heading the Biden administration’s now disbanded Disinformation Governance Board under the Department of Homeland Security. In an email, the official said he would look into CN‘s editor. He said Jankowicz told him she would “ask around” about Consortium News.

It is not clear who she asked, whether in or out of government. But Jankowicz told the official she thinks CN was not being funded, presumably by a foreign power such as Russia, but instead were just being “useful idiots.”

In 2020, the Canadian electronic intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) falsely accused Consortium News of being in the forefront of a Russian cyber attack.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said about his fiercest right-wing critics: “They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.” We welcome the Establishment’s hatred too. We also welcome all the support you can give us to help us continually beat them.



Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on Twitter @unjoe