Poll shows Lula with 51% approval after storming of Brasilia


Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a meeting with parliamentarians at Planalto Palace in Brasilia

Wed, January 11, 2023 

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's approval rate was 51% in a survey by pollster AtlasIntel released on Wednesday, in line with his share of valid votes in the October election were he defeated rival Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula's 11-day-old administration is still dealing with the fallout of Bolsonaro supporters rampaging through the capital on Sunday in an attempt to overthrow his government. Organizers are calling for fresh anti-government protests on Wednesday evening.

Disapproval of Lula was at 42% in the Atlasintel poll, the first major opinion survey in the wake of Sunday's political violence.

His government was considered "good" or "great" by 41.3% of those surveyed, while 38.4% saw it as "bad" or "terrible." The survey was conducted online with 2,200 people between Jan. 10-11. It has a margin of error of two percentage points up or down.

(Reporting by Flavia Marreiro; Writing by Peter Frontini; Editing by Brad Haynes, Chizu Nomiyama, William Maclean)

Brazil's Lula predicts policies in place within 100 days, reassures markets


Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a breakfast with journalists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia

Thu, January 12, 2023 at 9:31 AM MST·1 min read

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that he plans to have policies ready within 100 days so the country "runs at normal speed" again and told financial markets they should not worry about his Workers Party government.

Addressing Sunday's storming of government building in Brasilia by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, Lula told reporters that "what happened was a huge warning, we won the election but fanatic Bolsonaro supporters are very dangerous."

"Going forward we will be tougher and even more cautious," he said. "We must find out who is funding these acts, that is what puts democracy at risk.

Supporters of right-wing Bolsonaro ransacked Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace on Sunday, calling for a military coup to overturn the October election won by Lula.

Despite the events, Lula said Defense Minister Jose Mucio will remain in office, saying "I trust him."

"If I had to fire a minister every time they made a mistake, the turnaround would be enormous," Lula said.

The 77-year-old President also said that markets should not worry about his Workers Party government.

"I always oversaw primary surpluses", said Lula, who was also President of Brazil between 2003 and 2010.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Steven Grattan; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Lula to purge Bolsonaro loyalists from Brazilian security forces after rampage


Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a meeting with governors in Brasilia

Thu, January 12, 2023 
By Lisandra Paraguassu and Adriano Machado

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that security force members were complicit in letting an anti-government mob ransack the seat of power in Brasilia, and promised to weed out hardcore supporters of his predecessor.

The task of screening out those actors will be complex, his senior aides said, but investigations have begun to see who was responsible for letting backers of former President Jair Bolsonaro storm and vandalize the presidential palace.

"There were a lot of people who were complicit in this among the military police. There were many people from the armed forces who were complicit," Lula told journalists. "I am convinced that the door to the palace was opened to allow these people in, because I did not see that the door was broken."

Lula has also stepped up criticism of the army for not doing anything to discourage the two-month-old encampment of Bolsonaro supporters outside its headquarters, where they have been clamoring for the military to overturn the result of the October elections.

The Brazilian army did not respond to requests for comment.

Thousands of demonstrators calling for a military coup to oust Lula and restore Bolsonaro to power stormed the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace on Sunday, leaving a trail of smashed windows, furniture, computers and artwork.

The police force responsible for public security in Brazil's capital did not stop the mob advancing on the building, and some were seen in social media images taking selfies and chatting with demonstrators.

Riot police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and arrested some 1,800 protesters only after Lula ordered the federal government to intervene in local security.

Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a Bolsonaro ally, was among the first blamed for security lapses. He was suspended from office on Sunday by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who also ordered the arrest of his security chief and head of police.

The battalion of troops assigned to guard the presidential palace did not respond either until rioters had entered and trashed the palace, according to a Reuters witness.

Four on-duty staffers from the National Security Adviser's office (GSI) were quickly overwhelmed inside the presidential palace and their office ransacked. They looked on as protesters kicked at the reinforced door to Lula's office but failed to break in.

A presidential spokesman told Reuters that computers were taken from the National Security Adviser's office and hard drives containing confidential information had disappeared. Boxes of taser guns were emptied, said spokesman Guto Guterres.

Presidential Chief of Staff Rui Costa said the government now faces the challenge of undertaking a "decontamination" of the security forces and holding those responsible accountable.

"We have several institutions that have been contaminated with Bolsonarista hatred by far-right coup-mongers," said Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha.

Government officials said it remained unclear how soldiers or policemen who sympathize with demonstrators' calls for a military coup would be identified or removed.

One idea proposed by Lula's aides, aimed at discouraging the politicization of security forces, would be to limit military and police officers from running for elected office.

Brazil's Congress has a growing number of retired and even active-duty officers who tout their military or police credentials as part of their law-and-order appeal.

"This excessive participation of the military and military police in politics is progressively leading to ideological contamination of the forces," Costa said.

On Wednesday, Lula vetoed part of a bill passed by Congress under Bolsonaro that would guarantee the right of police officers to take part in political demonstrations.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Adriano Machado; Additional reporting and writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes and Deepa Babington)

La Salle residents told to shelter in place after possible explosion at Illinois chemical plant

A possible explosion has taken place at a chemical plant in LaSalle in Northern Illinois. A shelter-in-place order has been issued for residents in the area.

Firefighters arrived at the scene after a fire prompted a plume of smoke to rise above the plant, which has been evacuated, WGN9 reported.

The fire started shortly after 9am on Wednesday at Carus Chemical. The authorities sent an emergency alert to those in La Salle’s third and fourth wards to shelter in place.

The blaze has been classified as a 4-alarm fire, according to NBC Chicago.

La Salle police said an “explosion” took place in a shipping container at the plant, which is about 80 miles southwest of the windy city.

Carus, a family-owned business started in 1915, produces “supplies products and services for municipal water treatment, wastewater and air purification and soil remediation,” the company site states.

“There was a fire at the Carus Chemical Building. Residents living nearby are asked to please shelter in place,” the city authorities said in a statement.

Police followed up by urging residents to avoid a green substance that had been released after the incident.

“Attention LaSalle residents of the 3rd and 4th Wards, due to recent events, an oxidizer (which appears green in color) has been released in the area. Do NOT touch this substance. If you see this substance near or on your residence it can be deactivated,” the alert said. “In order to deactivate it, you will need a 1:1:1 mixture of: 1 gallon of water, 1 gallon of peroxide, 1 gallon of vinegar.”

The LaSalle - Peru Township High School District 120 said in a Facebook post that “as you may be aware, there was an explosion at the Carus Chemical plant on the east side of LaSalle this morning. Our school campus is safe”.

“We have been in communication with local emergency services to determine the best course of action to maintain the safety and well-being of our students and staff. We have been advised that it is safe to continue school as usual at this time. School administrators will continue to monitor the situation. In the event anything changes, we will inform families as soon as possible,” the district said.

Fire chief Jerry Janick said during a press conference on Wednesday that “at this time, the fire appears to be contained. We had no injuries and everyone from the building was accounted for. Right now, the city also has a Shelter In Place order for all residents to the north and west of the incident for precautionary reasons. We'll assess that shortly”.

“And right now, we're still bringing additional equipment in to assist in the final extinguishment and investigation,” he added.

While the chief said there was significant damage to the structure, he was unable to confirm that an explosion had occurred.

Fire rages at Illinois chemical plant, residents ordered to shelter


Firefighters tackle a large blaze at the Carus Chemical Plant in LaSalle

Tyler Clifford
Wed, January 11, 2023 

(Reuters) -A chemical plant in northern Illinois went up in flames on Wednesday morning, sending up plumes of black smoke and prompting officials to advise nearby residents to shelter in place as emergency crews responded to the blaze.

The fire broke out at the Carus Chemical Company complex in LaSalle, a city of less than 10,000 residents located about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.

Fire crews were called to the scene at 9 a.m. after an explosion at the plant, and the ensuing blaze caused significant damage before it was contained, LaSalle Fire Chief Jerry Janick said at a news conference. Additional equipment was ordered to fully extinguish the fire and start an investigation.

Video on social media showed thick black smoke billowing from the structure. Multiple structures in the complex were damaged or destroyed, footage showed.

LaSalle police alerted the public that a green-colored oxidizer was released in the area and warned residents against touching the substance.

"Hats off to the fire department because I think a good portion of this blaze was knocked down within a good hour," LaSalle Police Chief Mike Smudzinski said.

All workers were evacuated and accounted for with no injuries, according to a spokesperson for the family-owned company.

Carus produces an oxidant used to treat drinking and waste water, phosphates for corrosion control, and carbon capture products used for air purification, according to its website.

A shelter order remained in place for residents north and west of the incident, Janick said.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Berkrot)

Turkish court convicts doctor of terrorism propaganda, releases her from jail-rights groups


Turkish court holds a hearing in trial of Turkish Medical Association head Sebnem Korur Fincanci on "terrorist propaganda" charge in Istanbul


Wed, January 11, 2023

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court sentenced the head of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) to more than two years in prison for terrorism propaganda on Wednesday but ruled she should be released after being in detention since October, human rights activists said.

Sebnem Korur Fincanci, a prominent rights defender, was arrested on charges of spreading terrorist group propaganda in October after she said in an interview that claims that Turkey's military used chemical weapons against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq should be investigated.

President Tayyip Erdogan at the time denied the accusations that were made on media close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group in October, and said legal action would be taken against anyone making such allegations.

Fincanci's lawyer was not immediately available to comment on her sentence of two years and eight months in jail.

Rights groups have said Fincanci's detention was political and aimed to silence her. Milena Buyum, Turkey campaigner for Amnesty International, said her being found guilty was "an affront to all who uphold human rights."

"With our central committee head Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincanci, who is returning among us, we will play our role in the pivotal period before our country and will not allow the TTB or our country to surrender to the darkness," the TTB said in a tweet.

Turkey is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections by June, which are expected to see a strong opposition challenge to Erdogan.

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which represents doctors and campaigns to prevent armed violence, published a report in October seeking independent investigation of possible violations of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention by the Turkish military.

The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Fighting in recent years has increasingly focused on northern Iraq, where the PKK has bases.

It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and United States.

(Reporting by Daren Butler and Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Istanbul mayor, Erdogan critic faces fraud case -Haberturk


FILE PHOTO: Thousands protest in Turkey over Istanbul mayor's conviction in Istanbul

Wed, January 11, 2023

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have filed a lawsuit against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a potential challenger to President Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of rigging a public tender while he was a mayor of the city's Beylikduzu district, the broadcaster Haberturk reported on Wednesday.

The charge carries a possible jail sentence of up to seven years, Haberturk said, adding that a hearing was scheduled for June 15.

The case was opened after an Interior Ministry investigation into a tender for recruitment services that was held in 2015, Haberturk also said.

Imamoglu called the lawsuit "an attempt to fabricate a bogus criminal offence," saying the tender process had been investigated at the time with no findings of wrongdoing.

"I do not even have my signature on tender documents. Besides, Interior Ministry and the Council of State had not detected anything problematic in their examinations at the time," Imamoglu said on Twitter.

Imamoglu was sentenced last December to two years and seven months in prison and banned from politics for insulting public officials in 2019, when he criticised a decision to cancel the first round of municipal elections, in which he beat Erdogan's AK Party, which had held power for 25 years.

He has appealed that verdict but his conviction has rallied the opposition bloc around what it sees as a fight for democracy, the rule of law and justice.

Critics say Turkey's judiciary has been bent to Erdogan's will to punish his critics. The government says the judges are independent.

(Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Additional reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Josie Kao)

PRO PALESTINE
Harvard school in row over fellowship for human rights advocate


FILE PHOTO: Roth poses after an interview with Reuters in Geneva

Simon Lewis
Tue, January 10, 2023 at 3:21 PM MST·2 min read

(Reuters) - The prestigious Kennedy School at Harvard University is under fire over a decision not to award a fellowship to the former head of Human Rights Watch, which one academic said was due to the campaigner's criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

The school's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy last year approached Kenneth Roth, who served as HRW's executive director from 1993 to 2022, and agreed on the terms of a fellowship, according to both Roth and the Carr Center. The fellowship was subject to approval by Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf.

Kathryn Sikkink, a human rights academic at the Kennedy School, told The Nation magazine that Elmendorf told her he rejected the appointment because of what he called HRW's "anti-Israel bias."

The decision, reported by The Nation last week, drew criticism from some alumni, the American Civil Liberties Union and HRW itself. Freedom of expression advocacy group PEN America said the decision "raises serious questions about the credibility of the Harvard program itself."

Roth told Reuters by phone on Tuesday he believes the decision was made to avoid upsetting wealthy donors to the school who support Israel, and called on the Kennedy School to "reaffirm its commitment to academic freedom."

Harvard Kennedy School spokesperson James Smith said by email that Elmendorf decided not to appoint Roth "based on an evaluation of the candidate’s potential contributions to the Kennedy School," adding that the school does not discuss such deliberations.

The school practices "transparent engagement and funding" in order to avoid "actual or perceived conflicts of interest," according to its website. It publishes annual lists of donors, including some who are anonymous.

Some pro-Israel groups, including prominent Jewish organizations in the United States like the American Jewish Committee, have said HRW and other rights groups have shown bias against Israel in their reporting, in particular by labeling the treatment of Palestinians as "apartheid," as HRW did in 2021.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis in Lyndhurst, England, editing by Deepa Babington)

NO CRT NO WEB DUBOIS

Florida Professors Are Trying to Stop Gov. DeSantis From Reviving The "Stop W.O.K.E." Act

Amira Castilla
Thu, January 12, 2023 

Photo: Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP, File (AP)

Governor Ron DeSantis is working overtime to stop free speech for educators in his governing state of Florida.

DeSantis has ordered Florida state universities to send their spending data for critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as a part of the agenda he is pushing, the “Stop W.O.K.E.” Act.

The “Stop W.O.K.E.” Act stands for Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees, and it is a censoring law. It prohibits teaching environments and business settings from saying that persons of a particular ethnic group are racist and that they should feel guilty for the past actions of groups they identify. It also stops teaching that a person’s race or gender determines how much privilege they do or do not have and discrimination cannot happen for the sake of diversity.

The law was temporarily blocked in November 2022 by the Tallahassee US. District Judge Mark Walker and ordering the spending data is one way he is trying to work around the blocking. He is requesting the data by Friday, January 12. The American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Defense Fund are representing college professors asking for the data request to get blocked, claiming that the data request is going against the “Stop Woke” Act block.

When DeSantis first introduced “Stop W.O.K.E.” in 2021 he wanted Floridians to think that they would be doing a good thing by stopping education about race and the structures put in place to discriminate groups of people. However, the Act is a way to only oppress those minority groups more by not teaching historical context that would expose the wrongs done against them over time. When students and employees don’t know history, they are set up to continue and create dangerous agendas.

De Santis requesting the data is a part of his plan to stop funding the contributions to the teaching saying in a news release, “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

The Root

Florida teachers move to block DeSantis questions on CRT

Wed, January 11, 2023 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of Florida college professors on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block Gov. Ron DeSantis from requesting spending data on diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory programs in state universities.

The filing comes as part of a lawsuit against the so-called “Stop WOKE” Act, which restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in colleges. Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker has blocked the law, though DeSantis' office is appealing the decision.

The Republican governor in late December requested that state colleges submit spending data and other information on programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, which examines systemic racism. The schools were asked to submit the data by Friday.

The college educators, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Defense Fund, argue the governor's request violates the court order blocking the “Stop WOKE” Act.

“This is just another step towards enforcing this unconstitutional law and is clearly intended to continue to chill the speech of instructors and students in Florida. We cannot allow these threats against free speech to continue,” Jerry Edwards, staff attorney of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement.

DeSantis' office did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

The law prohibits teaching or business practices that contend members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilt for past actions committed by others. It also bars the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race or gender, or that discrimination is acceptable to achieve diversity.

The governor began pushing for the law late last year and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed it during the 2022 legislative session.

Critical race theory was developed during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what scholars viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.

Conservatives have rejected critical race theory, arguing the philosophy racially divides American society and aims to rewrite history to make white people believe they are inherently racist.

This is why New Yorkers must move toward climate-resilient housing | Opinion

Lea Webb and Anna Kelles

The Ithaca Journal
Thu, January 12, 2023 

Shira and Ari Evergreen were in a bind. Their fuel oil tank sprung a leak so they couldn’t buy heating oil for the coming winter unless they invested $2,000 in a new tank. Eager to get off of oil to a less expensive, less polluting heating system, the couple started to explore their options. The Evergreen family of four qualified for a $10,000 grant from the EmPower NY program, which, along with utility incentives, would cover the cost of a new energy efficient heat pump system for their small home in rural upstate New York. But, due to water damage in their ceiling, they were not approved for the grant.

With only a couple of space heaters to keep them warm, the Evergreens felt stuck and worried for their two young children. There were no programs that covered the cost of roof and ceiling repairs, although eventually, the Evergreen family was able to get the needed repairs done. They then secured grants that paid for a heat pump system and a heat pump water heater to be installed. Later, they purchased an induction stove and are now happily living in a healthy, cozy, all-electric home.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul delivers her State of the State address in the Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Albany, N.Y.

But the Evergreens’ story is the exception, not the rule. Many of our constituents fall through the cracks.

Earlier this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul gave an inspiring State of the State address that made unprecedented commitments to three crucial issues: housing, climate change and energy affordability, demonstrating that she understands how they go hand in hand. Further, Hochul laid out a bold policy agenda to spur housing growth, to modernize new construction and reduce existing buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions in line with the state’s Climate Act. She also pledged critical funding to ensure energy affordability for low income households. The EmPower program that helped the Evergreens solve their heating problem for example, will now be expanded to serve more families along with an energy affordability guarantee.

Now these commitments must be codified into law. The best way to accomplish this is for the governor to include the All Electric Building Act, the NY HEAT Act, formerly Gas Transition and Affordable Energy Act and the Energy Efficiency, Equity and Jobs Act, along with a Green Affordable Pre-Electrification Fund to cover home repairs and remediation. These bills are carefully detailed road maps that will effectively guide the state in reaching the Governor’s stated 2023 goals.

Across New York, there are tens of thousands of low- and moderate-income households like the Evergreens living precariously in old poorly insulated buildings with insufficient heating and appliances. They’re often unable to take advantage of grant programs designed to help them because of deferred maintenance — mold, lead, asbestos, knob-and-tube wiring and structural issues. These issues are even more confounding for renters, who fear that asking for improvements to their buildings could lead to higher rents, eviction, and neighborhood gentrification. By passing these bills, the state legislature and Hochul can make clean and affordable energy within reach for every New Yorker.

The housing and energy crises in our state are already crippling and they are inextricably linked to the extreme weather events as we just witnessed in Buffalo. New York’s housing crisis, reported to be the 4th worst in the US, is exacerbated by the poor condition of the state’s oldest in the nation building inventory. Energy burden — the percentage of household income spent on energy bills — is already sky high, and heating fuel prices are projected to get even more expensive this winter. According to the Public Utility Law Project, the average energy burden of low-to-moderate income households in the Southern Tier is over 12% — double what is considered affordable. The worst impacts of this crisis are and will be borne hardest by the most marginalized New Yorkers: low-income families, the elderly, and people of color.

Hochul has laid out an ambitious progressive agenda to tackle emissions from buildings, our state’s largest source of greenhouse gasses. We stand ready to work together with the governor to fulfill the need for a healthful, affordable and climate resilient home for every New Yorker.

State Sen. Lea Webb represents Senate District 52 and Assemblymember Anna Kelles represents Assembly District 125, both touching on the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: This is why New Yorkers must move toward climate-resilient housing

US Spy agencies report hundreds more UFO sightings since 2021



Bryan Bender and Kelly Garrity
Thu, January 12, 2023

National security agencies are studying hundreds of new reports of UFOs, including many that appear to perform maneuvers that are highly advanced, the nation’s top intelligence official reported on Thursday.

In total, 510 “unidentified aerial phenomena” observed in protected airspace or near sensitive facilities have been compiled as of August of last year, according to the report to Congress from the director of national intelligence.

Of those, 366 were gathered since a preliminary assessment was published in 2021 — an increase attributed to a “reduced stigma” around reporting, and a better understanding of the intelligence and safety threats that the phenomena may pose.

More than half of those new sightings — most of which came from Navy and Air Force pilots — exhibit “unremarkable characteristics,” according to the report: 26 were characterized as drones; 163 were labeled balloons or “balloon-like entities”; and six were described as “clutter.”

That still leaves 171 sightings, however, some of which “appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities,” the report says. Few other details were provided about these unidentified entities, though the report noted that no U.S. aircraft has ever collided with a UFO, and observing them has caused no adverse health effects so far.

The 12-page report, which does not detail when each of the sightings occurred, is an unclassified summary of a secret version that was delivered to Congress and was required by last year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

It is the latest installment in a growing campaign by Congress in recent years to force the military and spy agencies to take the sightings more seriously and better coordinate efforts to study them as a potential national security threat. Lawmakers also want agencies to be more forthcoming with information that has not been shared with oversight committees.

Other top officials have said in recent weeks that they have not uncovered any evidence so far that the unidentified vehicles are otherworldly in origin or indicate the existence of a non-human entity.

But they insist they are keeping an open mind.

“We have not seen anything that would … lead us to believe that any of the objects that we have seen are of alien origin,” Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, told reporters at a briefing ahead of the report’s release. “If we find something like that, we will look at it and analyze it and take the appropriate actions.”

The Pentagon’s recently established All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which was mandated by Congress last year, is serving as the focal point for the governmentwide investigation.

“As a physicist, I have to adhere to the scientific method, and I will follow that data and science wherever it goes,” said Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the AARO.

But officials have also insisted that they are just at the beginning of a full-scale effort — drawing on multiple military and civilian agencies and government contractors — to study UFOs.

The DNI report also follows the passage of the National Defense and Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal 2023, which dedicates 34 pages to aerial phenomena and mandates a series of additional steps for the Defense Department and intelligence agencies.

The latest legislation, which President Joe Biden signed in December, does not refrain from seeking answers to some of the most provocative and hotly debated questions that have swirled around the UFO topic for decades. Those include whether the government or its contractors have been secretly hiding crashed UFOs or whether personnel have suffered health problems after encounters.

It requires the Pentagon and DNI to create a secure system for reporting phenomena without fear of reprisal. That includes calling on people to come forward with any knowledge of retrieved materials from unidentified craft, or any secret efforts to reverse engineer UFO technology.

“We want to make sure service members, and other members of the military, that when they come forward with data and information and videos, that they can accurately give this information without having their careers suffer and being dismissed or disregarded in some way,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence committees who has been a leading sponsor of recent UFO legislation, told “The Brian Lehrer Show” on Dec. 21.

The new defense bill also requires the AARO to deliver, within 18 months, a historical record on government UFO efforts dating to 1945, including "any program or activity that was protected by restricted access that has not been explicitly and clearly reported to Congress."

“That is going to be quite a research project, if you will, into the archives and going backwards in time,” Kirkpatrick said.


Top Pentagon officials also insist they are committed to trying to unearth any buried secrets about UFOs that national security agencies have been accused of shielding even from congressional oversight committees and top officials in the executive branch.

“We are going back and trying to understand all the compartmented programs that this department has had,” Moultrie said.

The newly signed legislation also mandates an intelligence collection and analysis plan to study characteristics, origins and intentions of the vehicles.

Kirkpatrick said the Pentagon office is developing “a focused collection campaign using both traditional and nontraditional sources and sensors.”

That includes building a team of experts from within DoD, at NASA, CIA and other agencies, as well as from the private sector.

“More data will help build a more complete picture and support the resolution of anomalous phenomena,” Kirkpatrick said.

NASA is also stepping up its efforts to assist the overall investigation. The space agency established an independent study team in October, including leading academics, computer scientists, oceanographers, space industry executives and others.

One focus is to determine whether any of its satellites or other space sensors have picked up any UFO activity.

“Our sensor data, looking back at Earth, on this particular satellite, does it have any information that would clarify what that object is as identified by others?” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a recent interview.

The NASA panel is scheduled to issue its own report in July.

US government examining over 500 'UFO' reports

Thu, January 12, 2023


The US government is examining 510 UFO reports, over triple the number in its 2021 file, and while many were caused by drones or balloons, hundreds remain unexplained, according to a report released Thursday.

The 2022 report by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said that 247 "unidentified anomalous phenomena" or UAP reports have been filed with it since June 2021, when it revealed that it had records of 144 sightings of suspicious aerial objects under examination.

In addition, the report said, another 119 reports that had been buried in old records from the past 17 years had been unearthed, leaving it with 510 in total.

Most of the new reports come from US Navy and Air Force pilots, it said.

Of those, close to 200 had "unremarkable" explanations: they were balloons, drones or so-called aerial clutter, which covers birds, weather events and airborne plastic bags.

But others haven't been explained according to the DNI document, an unclassified version of a report delivered to Congress.

Those are the focus of examinations by the Pentagon, US intelligence agencies, and NASA over concerns not that they are alien spacecraft but unknown spying capabilities of rival countries.

"UAP continue to represent a hazard to flight safety and pose a possible adversary collection threat," the report said, referring to intelligence gathering.

"Some of these uncharacterized UAP appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis," it said.

The report said many of those still unexplained reports could stem from weather phenomena, faulty sensors, or erroneous analysis by humans.

"Many reports lack enough detailed data to enable attribution of UAP with high certainty," it said.

The report came after years of pressure from Congress for the military and intelligence community to take seriously what were formerly called UFOs, or unidentified flying objects.

The US military is worried some of the UAPs spotted by military pilots in the past may represent technologies of strategic rivals unknown to US scientists.

The Pentagon previously called them unidentified aerial phenomena, but has now changed it to unidentified anomalous phenomena to include air, space, and maritime domains.

In 2020, the Pentagon released a still inexplicable video taken by navy pilots of objects moving at incredible speeds, spinning and mysteriously disappearing.

"We take reports of incursions into our designated space, land, sea, or airspaces seriously and examine each one," said Pentagon Spokesman Pat Ryder in a statement.

pmh/des


UFO reports rise to 510, not aliens but still a threat to US


FILE - The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it flies over Washington, March 2, 2022. The U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects, many of which are flying in sensitive military airspace. While there’s no evidence of extraterrestrials, they still pose a threat, the government said in a declassified report summary released Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) 

TARA COPP
Thu, January 12, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects, many of which are flying in sensitive military airspace. While there’s no evidence of extraterrestrials, they still pose a threat, the government said in a declassified report summary released Thursday.

Last year the Pentagon opened an office, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, solely focused on receiving and analyzing all of those reports of unidentified phenomena, many of which have been reported by military pilots. It works with the intelligence agencies to further assess those incidents.

The events “continue to occur in restricted or sensitive airspace, highlighting possible concerns for safety of flight or adversary collection activity,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in its 2022 report.

The classified version of the report addresses how many of those objects were found near locations where nuclear power plants operate or nuclear weapons are stored.

The 510 objects include 144 objects previously reported and 366 new reports. In both the old and new cases, after analysis, the majority have been determined to exhibit “unremarkable characteristics,” and could be characterized as unmanned aircraft systems, or balloon-like objects, the report said.

But the office is also tasked with reporting any movements or reports of objects that may indicate that a potential adversary has a new technology or capability.

The Pentagon's anomaly office is also to include any unidentified objects moving underwater, in the air, or in space, or something that moves between those domains, which could pose a new threat.

ODNI said in its report that efforts to destigmatize reporting and emphasize that the objects may pose a threat likely contributed to the additional reports.

Mexico, Canada sign agreement to benefit indigenous peoples

Wed, January 11, 2023 

STORY: Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly signed the documents in the presence of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In the document, both parties expressed their willingness to work together for the equity and inclusion of Mexican and Canadian indigenous communities.

Trudeau and Lopez Obrador held a bilateral meeting on Wednesday at Mexico's national palace, where the officials vowed to tighten economic ties.

ICYMI

Exxon scientists predicted current climate change 40 years ago: study


Saul Elbein
Thu, January 12, 2023 

Scientists at oil giant ExxonMobil accurately forecast present-day climate change going back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new study has found.

The findings by Harvard and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research are “the nail-in-the-coffin of ExxonMobil’s claims that it has been falsely accused of climate malfeasance,” lead author Geoffrey Supran, a research associate at Harvard, asserted in a statement.

The majority of the company’s internal climate predictions prepared during that period — between 63 and 83 percent of Exxon’s files — have closely matched actual global warming, according to the paper set to be published on Thursday in Environmental Research Letters.

“We find that most of their projections accurately forecast warming consistent with subsequent observations,” the report states. “Their projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models.”

The research assesses 32 internal documents produced by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2002, as well as 72 peer-reviewed scientific publications authored or co-authored by ExxonMobil scientists between 1982 and 2014.

In some cases, that research was better quality than far more influential studies by government scientists, according to the Harvard and Potsdam researchers’ analyses of Exxon’s predictive “skill scores,” or how their predictions matched what actually happened.

For example, when NASA scientist James Hansen presented his global warming predictions to Congress in 1988 — helping launch the modern climate movement — his studies matched subsequent warming by up to 66 percent, according to the Harvard and Potsdam researchers.

At the same time, Exxon scientists were producing climate research with an average skill score of 75 percent, the study found.

In the 1990s, the oil giant turned away from funding climate science and pivoted to a campaign raising broad-based doubt over the quality of those findings.

“Let’s face it: The science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil,” stated one Exxon ad, addressing proposals in the late 1990s for the U.S. to join the Kyoto Protocols, a climate accord the country nearly joined more than 15 years before the pivotal 2015 Paris climate agreement.

“Scientists cannot predict with certainty if temperatures will increase, by how much and where changes will occur,” Exxon copywriters claimed.

In a statement to The Hill, Exxon spokesperson Todd Spitler sought to cast the report as part of a broader ginned-up campaign by the companies’ critics to portray “well intended, internal policy debates as an attempted company disinformation campaign.”

“This issue has come up several times in recent years and, in each case, our answer is the same: those who talk about how ‘Exxon Knew’ are wrong in their conclusions,” Spitler said. “ExxonMobil is committed to being part of the solution to climate change and the risks it poses.”

“Exxon Knew” is an activist campaign that accuses the company of spending millions to cast doubt on scientific findings that its principal products — oil and gas — would lead to potentially dangerous levels of warming.

“Just as Big Tobacco lied about the risks of addiction and cancer, Exxon orchestrated a campaign of doubt and deception, making hundreds of billions at the cost of people’s lives,” the campaigners wrote.

Exxon has repeatedly pushed back on the efforts, calling it “an orchestrated campaign” from activist organizations “that seeks to delegitimize ExxonMobil by misrepresenting our position on climate change and related research to the public.”

Exxon spokespeople now charge that allegations the company misled the public are ignoring that there was scientific dispute within the company — even if a broad majority of company scientists turned out data supporting the role of fossil fuel burning in climate change.

“Currently, the scientific evidence is inconclusive as to whether human activities are having a significant effect on the global climate,” Then-Exxon CEO Lee Raymond told the Economic Club of Detroit in 1996, according to Inside Climate News.

The following year, he said in a speech that “many people, politicians and the public alike, believe that global warming is a rock-solid certainty. But it’s not.”

In 1998 Exxon highlighted those uncertainties as part of a campaign that helped keep the U.S. out of the Kyoto Protocols, which would have committed the country to reduce carbon emissions, as PBS reported.

The Harvard study comes as part of a larger debate over Exxon’s role in contributing to historical climate change, which is itself a subset of an ever more significant dispute over the role of planet-heating fossil fuels in a rapidly warming world.

The U.S. oil industry currently faces at least 20 lawsuits by U.S. cities and towns that say it should help pay for ongoing climate damage and adaptation, PBS reported.

Exxon has sought to cast itself as an enthusiastic partner in the campaign to keep global temperatures from rising below dangerous levels. The company “is committed to being part of the solution to climate change and the risks it poses,” Spitler told The Hill.

As such, the company has announced a wide range of policies that it says are helping it to “support a net zero future.”

The company recently touted its plans to spend $17 billion on “lower-emission initiatives” through 2027, and highlighted cuts to its methane emissions of 40 percent and nearly 10 percent cuts in the carbon intensity of its operations.

It hopes to carve out a future for the fossil fuel industry through carbon capture technology, which it claims will drop the carbon cost of the industry, as CNBC reported.

But while the company is cutting the carbon cost of each barrel of oil it produces, it is also fighting Securities and Exchange Commission climate reporting rules that could see it forced to account for the carbon released when customers burn its oil and gas — rather than just when the company produces it.

Critics maintain that these investments do not change the fact that the company’s primary products remain centered around fossil fuel.

“ExxonMobil accurately foresaw the threat of human-caused global warming, both prior and parallel to orchestrating lobbying and propaganda campaigns to delay climate action,” the Harvard authors wrote.

Study: Exxon Mobil accurately predicted warming since 1970s


The Exxon Mobil Baton Rouge Refinery complex is visible with the Louisiana State Capitol, bottom right, in Baton Rouge, La., Monday, April 11, 2022. Exxon Mobil’s scientists were remarkably accurate in their predictions about global warming, even as the company made public statements that contradicted its own scientists' conclusions, a new study says. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

ASSOCIATED PRESS
SETH BORENSTEIN and CATHY BUSSEWITZ
Thu, January 12, 2023 

DENVER (AP) — Exxon Mobil’s scientists were remarkably accurate in their predictions about global warming, even as the company made public statements that contradicted its own scientists' conclusions, a new study says.

The study in the journal Science Thursday looked at research that Exxon funded that didn’t just confirm what climate scientists were saying, but used more than a dozen different computer models that forecast the coming warming with precision equal to or better than government and academic scientists.

This was during the same time that the oil giant publicly doubted that warming was real and dismissed climate models’ accuracy. Exxon said its understanding of climate change evolved over the years and that critics are misunderstanding its earlier research.

Scientists, governments, activists and news sites, including Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, several years ago reported that “Exxon knew” about the science of climate change since about 1977 all while publicly casting doubt. What the new study does is detail how accurate Exxon funded research was. From 63% to 83% of those projections fit strict standards for accuracy and generally predicted correctly that the globe would warm about .36 degrees (.2 degrees Celsius) a decade.


The Exxon-funded science was “actually astonishing” in its precision and accuracy, said study co-author Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard science history professor. But she added so was the “hypocrisy because so much of the Exxon Mobil disinformation for so many years ... was the claim that climate models weren’t reliable.”

Study lead author Geoffrey Supran, who started the work at Harvard and now is a environmental science professor at the University of Miami, said this is different than what was previously found in documents about the oil company.

“We’ve dug into not just to the language, the rhetoric in these documents, but also the data. And I’d say in that sense, our analysis really seals the deal on ‘Exxon knew’,” Supran said. It “gives us airtight evidence that Exxon Mobil accurately predicted global warming years before, then turned around and attacked the science underlying it.”

The paper quoted then-Exxon CEO Lee Raymond in 1999 as saying future climate “projections are based on completely unproven climate models, or more often, sheer speculation," while his successor in 2013 called models “not competent."

Exxon’s understanding of climate science developed along with the broader scientific community, and its four decades of research in climate science resulted in more than 150 papers, including 50 peer-reviewed publications, said company spokesman Todd Spitler.

“This issue has come up several times in recent years and, in each case, our answer is the same: those who talk about how ‘Exxon Knew’ are wrong in their conclusions,” Spitler said in an emailed statement. “Some have sought to misrepresent facts and Exxon Mobil’s position on climate science, and its support for effective policy solutions, by recasting well intended, internal policy debates as an attempted company disinformation campaign.”

Exxon, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, has been the target of numerous lawsuits that claim the company knew about the damage its oil and gas would cause to the climate, but misled the public by sowing doubt about climate change. In the latest such lawsuit, New Jersey accused five oil and gas companies including Exxon of deceiving the public for decades while knowing about the harmful toll fossil fuels take on the climate.

Similar lawsuits from New York to California have claimed that Exxon and other oil and gas companies launched public relations campaigns to stir doubts about climate change. In one, then-Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said Exxon’s public relations efforts were “ reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s long denial campaign about the dangerous effects of cigarettes.”

Oreskes acknowledged in the study that she has been a paid consultant in the past for a law firm suing Exxon, while Supran has gotten a grant from the Rockefeller Family Foundation, which has also helped fund groups that were suing Exxon. The Associated Press receives some foundation support from Rockefeller and maintains full control of editorial content.

Oil giants including Exxon and Shell were accused in congressional hearings in 2021 of spreading misinformation about climate, but executives from the companies denied the accusations.

University of Illinois atmospheric scientist professor emeritus Donald Wuebbles told The Associated Press that in the 1980s he worked with Exxon-funded scientists and wasn’t surprised by what the company knew or the models. It’s what science and people who examined the issue knew.

“It was clear that Exxon Mobil knew what was going on,’’ Wuebbles said. “The problem is at the same time they were paying people to put out misinformation. That’s the big issue.”

There's a difference between the “hype and spin” that companies do to get you to buy a product or politicians do to get your vote and an “outright lie ... misrepresenting factual information and that's what Exxon did,” Oreskes said.

Several outside scientists and activists said what the study showed about Exxon actions is serious.

“The harm caused by Exxon has been huge,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck. “They knew that fossil fuels, including oil and natural gas, would greatly alter the planet’s climate in ways that would be costly in terms of lives, human suffering and economic impacts. And yet, despite this understanding they choose to publicly downplay the problem of climate change and the dangers it poses to people and the planet.”

Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald asked: “How many thousands (or more) of lives have been lost or adversely impacted by Exxon Mobil’s deliberate campaign to obscure the science?”

Critics say Exxon’s past actions on climate change undermine its claims that it’s committed to reducing emissions.

After tracking Exxon's and hundreds of other companies' corporate lobbying on climate change policies, InfluenceMap, a firm that analyzes data on how companies are impacting the climate crisis, concluded that Exxon is lobbying overall in opposition to the goals of the Paris Agreement and that it's currently among the most negative and influential corporations holding back climate policy.

“All the research we have suggests that effort to thwart climate action continues to this day, prioritizing the oil and gas industry value chain from the “potentially existential” threat of climate change, rather than the other way around,” said Faye Holder, program manager for InfluenceMap.

“The messages of denial and delay may look different, but the intention is the same.”

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Bussewitz reported from New York.

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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears and Cathy Bussewitz at @cbussewitz

Exxon Mobil publicly denied global warming for years but quietly predicted it

Tony Briscoe
Thu, January 12, 2023 

Environmental activists rallied outside the New York Supreme Court building in October 2019 in New York City while inside New York's attorney general was taking on Exxon Mobil in a case that accused the oil giant of misleading investors about the company's financial risks due to climate change. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

In perhaps one of the most cynically ironic twists in the field of climate science, new research suggests Exxon Mobil Corp. may have had keener insight into the impending dangers of global warming than even NASA scientists but still waged a decades-long campaign to discredit research into climate change and its connection to the burning of fossil fuels.

Despite its public denials, the major oil corporation worked behind closed doors to carry out an astonishingly accurate series of global warming projections between 1977 and 2003, according to a study published Thursday in Science.

“Exxon didn't just know some climate science, they actually helped advance it,” said Geoffrey Supran, lead author of the study and former researcher in the department of the history of science at Harvard University. “They didn't just vaguely know something about global warming decades ago, they knew as much as independent academics and government scientists did. And arguably, they knew all they needed to know.”

In a review of archived documents and memos, researchers found that scientists for then-Exxon had completed a set of 16 models that predicted global temperatures would rise, on average, about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade. Since 1981, Earth’s global average temperature has risen about 0.32 degrees (0.18 Celsius) per decade, according to NASA.

Researchers at Harvard and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found most of the Exxon Mobil projections are consistent with subsequent global temperature observations, according to the study. Many of the Exxon projections proved to be more precise than those by James Hansen, then-director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who famously testified before U.S. Senate in 1988 about the "greenhouse effect."

The analysis adds to a growing body of evidence that the nation’s largest oil producer recognized burning fossil fuels was warming the Earth, even as it continued to heap doubt onto that notion publicly. The paper also shows, for the first time, just how precise and sophisticated the fossil fuel industry's own climate research was.

In response to the study, Exxon Mobil spokesperson Todd Spitler said the company’s understanding of climate science has evolved along with that of the broader scientific community. The energy company, he said, is now actively engaged on several efforts to mitigate global warming.

“This issue has come up several times in recent years and, in each case, our answer is the same: those who suggest ‘we knew’ are wrong,” Spitler said in a statement. “Some have sought to misrepresent facts and Exxon Mobil’s position on climate science, and its support for effective policy solutions, by recasting well intended, internal policy debates as an attempted company disinformation campaign.”

The Harvard-led study builds previous academic research, in addition to investigative reporting by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, that uncovered a tranche of internal company memos demonstrating Exxon officials knew burning fossil fuels would lead to global warming since the late 1970s.

Exxon was once a pioneer in the arena of climate research in the early 1980s. But its public stance on global warming changed sharply by 1990.

In one internal draft memo from August 1988 titled “The Greenhouse Effect,” a public relations manager detailed the scientific consensus about the role of fossil fuels in global warming but wrote that the company should “Emphasize the uncertainty.” An archived presentation in 1989 from Exxon’s manager of science and strategy development said:

 “Data confirm that greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere. Fossil fuels contribute most of the CO2.”

In 1999 — the year Exxon and Mobil merged — company Chief Executive Lee Raymond, however, said future climate “projections are based on completely unproven climate models, or, more often, sheer speculation.”

In 2015, Raymond’s successor, Rex Tillerson, who later served as secretary of State under President Trump, also questioned climate projections involving the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere.

“We do not really know what the climate effects of 600 parts per million versus 450 parts per million will be because the models simply are not that good,” Tillerson said.

As Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, shown in 2014, questioned climate projections involving the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. (LM Otero / Associated Press)

Years earlier, however, Exxon's own modeling from 1982 suggested that 600 ppm of CO2 would lead to 2.3 degrees (1.3 Celsius) more global warming than 450 ppm.

The analysis also found that Exxon scientists had projected that global warming would first become detectable at the turn 21st century. The Exxon scientists concluded this warming trend would render the Earth hotter than at any time in at least 150,000 years, debunking unfounded theories of “global cooling” and a forthcoming ice age.

Despite such findings by their own scientists, company officials poured millions of dollars into a public relations campaign to cast doubt on the science behind climate change. That campaign included prominent ads in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

“They were right on the money in terms of rejecting a possible ice age, accurately predicting when warming would first be detectable, estimating the carbon budget for 2 degrees — and then, in all of those points, the company’s subsequent public statements contradicted its own data,” said Supran, now an associate professor of environmental science and policy at the University of Miami.

It wasn't until 2007 that Exxon Mobil publicly conceded that climate change was occurring, and was largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels and proliferation of heat-trapping CO2.

Before the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels were consistently around 280 ppm for almost 6,000 years of human civilization, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since then, humans released an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of carbon emissions through the burning of fossil fuels -- including gas, coal and methane.

In 2022 — which NOAA now ranks as the sixth-warmest year on record — CO2 levels reached 420 parts per million in November, a mark the planet hasn’t seen in millions of years.

Nine of the last 10 years have been the warmest since 1880, according to NOAA. These rising temperatures are fueling extreme weather events worldwide, and California and the Western U.S. have been on the frontlines in recent years.

Despite a recent barrage of deadly storms that have hit California since the beginning of the year, the American Southwest is still braving one of its driest stretches in 1,200 years. California is also still recovering from a record-setting wildfire season in 2020, during which 4.3 million acres were scorched statewide. And as Arctic ice continues to melt, sea level rise threatens to exacerbate coastal erosion.

Vapor rises from the former Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance in 2016. The company sold the facility to a smaller energy corporation the same year. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)

The recent Exxon Mobil findings have given more fodder to the #ExxonKnew campaign — an environmental crusade that traces its origins to a 2012 meeting of climate activists and experts in La Jolla. Its supporters have accused Exxon Mobil of intentionally misleading the public and causing humanity to lose precious time in the fight to curtail carbon emissions. They have called for investigations into the company’s statements about climate change and fossil fuels.

In that time, dozens of local and state governments, including several California cities, have filed suit against Exxon Mobil and other energy companies for orchestrating public deception campaigns in spite of internal scientific knowledge.

In 2019, a New York state judge dismissed the New York attorney general’s lawsuit against Exxon Mobil that accused the company of defrauding its shareholders by failing to accurately account for the risks of climate change.

As Exxon Mobil continues to challenge similar litigation elsewhere, the company’s website is now chock-full of climate-friendly lingo on how it intends to support a “net-zero future” with “lower-emission efforts” — a stark departure from its public stance more than a decade earlier.

“There's this sort of gradual evolution away from outright denial and towards what we call discourses of delay,” Supran said. “That kind of blends into the present where we have these much more subtle discourses that position fossil fuels as essential to the future of humanity.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.