Google warns U$ Supreme Court against ‘gutting’ controversial tech provision



Rebecca Klar
Thu, January 12, 2023 

Google argued that if the Supreme Court rules to scale back a liability shield for internet companies, the decision could lead to more censorship and hate speech online, according to a brief filed Thursday.

The filing showcases Google’s argument in a case facing the high court that centers around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a controversial provision that protects companies from being sued over content posted by third parties.

“Gutting Section 230 … would upend the internet and perversely encourage both wide-ranging suppression of speech and the proliferation of more offensive speech,” the filing states.

Sites with resources to take down objectionable content could “become beholden to heckler’s vetoes, removing anything anyone found objectionable,” while other sides could take “the see-no-evil approach” and disable filtering to “avoid any interference of constructive knowledge of third-party content,” the company argued.

The case is based on allegations against Google raised by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen killed in a 2015 Islamic State Terror Attack in France. Gonzalez’s family alleges Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube provided a platform for terrorist content and recommended content inciting violence and recruiting potential Islamic State supporters through YouTube’s recommendation algorithm.

At the crux of the case is a question of whether Section 230 protects Google against the allegations.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are scheduled for Feb. 21.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been pushing for reforms to Section 230, but for different reasons, meaning there is likely to be little consensus by way of policy reform.

President Biden doubled down on his calls to reform Section 230 in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Democrats argue the provision leads to more hate speech and misinformation online, since it protects tech platforms from being legally responsible for such content. Meanwhile, Republicans argue it allows platforms to censor content with anti-conservative biases.

The Justice Department filed a brief in the case last month warning the Supreme Court against an “overly broad” interpretation of Section 230. The department argued that the provision protects YouTube over liability for hosting or “failing to remove” ISIS-related content, but not over claims based on YouTube’s “own conduct in designing and implementing its targeted-recommendation algorithms.”

The Hill.

WHERE SATIRE IS ILLEGAL
Mexico's buck-toothed cartoon president ruled 'electoral violation'



 Supporter of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends a protest rally in Mexico City

Wed, January 11, 2023

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A buck-toothed cartoon version of Mexico's president constitutes an "electoral violation," the country's electoral tribunal ruled Wednesday, arguing use of the popular caricature in official propaganda gave party candidates an unfair advantage.

The tribunal said it was sanctioning President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's ruling Morena party for "using the caricature of the President of the Republic in its propaganda, which violates the constitutional principles of neutrality and fair contest."

Designed by Mexican caricaturist Jose Hernandez, the image of the 69-year-old head of state with tousled gray hair, two large, protruding front teeth and an affable childlike grin giving a thumbs-up gesture, was popularized during Lopez Obrador's first presidential bid ahead of the 2006 elections.

Affectionately known as "Amlito" - a diminutive reference to the president's initials, AMLO - the cartoon has since been reproduced on dolls, key chains, baked goods, banners and, crucially, a May 2022 post on Morena's Twitter account promoting six party candidates for local gubernatorial elections

The tribunal's upper chamber ruled there was "constitutional and legal basis" to sanction the message, arguing the image of the popular head of state should not have been used as propaganda for a contest in which he was not a candidate.

It argued "capitalizing on the image" of the president, whose approval rating hovers around 60%, gave his party's candidates an undue advantage.

The chamber called on "political-electoral propaganda campaigns" to limit themselves to candidates, their proposals, party ideology and platforms. Morena had earlier appealed, arguing there was no legal ban in force on using the caricature.

"Now the (electoral tribunal) has confirmed the action was illegal and sanctioned them," Jorge Alvarez, an opposition party organizer who filed the complaint, said in a tweet. "We will continue the fight through legal channels."

(Reporting by Sarah Morland; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

TORY ANTI-SEMITISM

UK's Conservatives ditch lawmaker for comparing COVID vaccines to Holocaust

WHERE IS THE BRIT ZIONIST OUTCRY


Andrew Bridgen  British politician (born 1964)

Wed, January 11, 2023 

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's governing Conservative Party expelled a lawmaker from its parliamentary bloc on Wednesday for comparing COVID-19 vaccines to the Holocaust.

"Andrew Bridgen has crossed a line, causing great offence in the process," said Simon Hart, the chief whip, or head of party discipline, for the Conservatives.

"Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives. I am therefore removing the whip from Andrew Bridgen with immediate effect, pending a formal investigation."

Bridgen, a longstanding critic of COVID-19 vaccines, had earlier on Wednesday tweeted a link to an article on vaccine side effects, adding the comment: "As one consultant cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust."

Speaking in parliament, Sunak later told lawmakers: "It is utterly unacceptable to make linkages and use language like that, and I'm determined that the scourge of anti-Semitism is eradicated. It has absolutely no place in our society."

Asked about the charge of anti-Semitism, Bridgen later apologised.

"In relation to my tweet this morning, the use of the Holocaust as a reference was insensitive, for which I apologise. I have deleted the offending tweet," he said.

"However, this must not be used to distract from valid concerns related to the vaccine. The article I tweeted presents the work of a Jewish Israeli researcher."

Sunak's party considers the fast roll-out of vaccines in 2021 to be one of its major achievements in power, and says the vaccine saved countless lives during the pandemic and allowed the country to end lockdowns quickly.

Bridgen is currently suspended from parliament's lower chamber the House of Commons for five days after being found to have breached rules on paid lobbying and on declaring financial interests.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Farouq Suleiman; Writing by William James; Editing by Peter Graff and Alex Richardson)

Conservative MP stripped of party whip after he linked Covid vaccine to Holocaust


Andrew Bridgen  British politician 

Kate Devlin
Wed, January 11, 2023

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has been stripped of the party whip after he appeared to link the rollout of Covid vaccinations to the Holocaust.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak denounced the comments as “completely unacceptable”.

The party’s chief whip Simon Hart said Mr Bridgen had “crossed a line” and had “caused great offence in the process”.

Mr Bridgen claimed that Covid vaccines were “causing serious harms” and said he had been told the programme was “the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust”.

Mr Hart said: “The vaccine is the best defence against Covid that we have. Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives. I am therefore removing the Whip from Andrew Bridgen with immediate effect, pending a formal investigation.”

On Wednesday Mr Bridgen tweeted an article on vaccines, adding: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”

Earlier this week the North West Leicestershire MP was suspended from the Commons for five days. MPs backed the measure after he was found to have displayed a "very cavalier" attitude to the rules in a series of lobbying breaches.

Will Moy, chief executive at anti-misinformation site Full Fact, said “Andrew Bridgen has put lives at risk for months by being enabled to peddle health misinformation in Parliament.

“It is right that the Conservative Party took action after Andrew Bridgen’s shameful comments online earlier today. But it is unacceptable that an MP has been allowed to repeatedly make dangerous, false claims about vaccines for months without consequence.

“Globally, we have seen what happens when we empower conspiracy theorists to spread dangerous health misinformation, which costs lives.

“Are the Conservative Party seriously going to consider endorsing an MP who behaves like this at the next election?”

TC OWES ALBERTA TAXPAYERS $1BL
Keystone pipeline may be 'unsaleable' after spill; analyst pushes other asset sales

TC Energy CEO says "there are no sacred cows" when it comes to shedding assets

Jeff Lagerquist
Thu, January 12, 2023 

Emergency crews work to clean up the largest U.S. crude oil spill in nearly a decade, following the leak at the Keystone pipeline operated by TC Energy in rural Washington County, Kansas, U.S., December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Drone Base

TC Energy’s (TRP.TO)(TRP) Keystone crude oil pipeline may be “unsaleable” in 2023 after its 14,000-barrel spill last year. That’s according to a RBC Capital Markets analyst calling for management to double or triple the size of the company's plan to sell off billions in assets this year.

On Monday, the Calgary-based energy and infrastructure firm said it’s too early to estimate the cost of the Dec. 7 pipeline rupture, as clean-up efforts continue in Kansas. While the 622,000 barrel-per-day artery resumed service in late December, RBC’s Robert Kwan says the incident could put Keystone “out of the picture” as TC Energy looks to sell $5 billion in assets.

“We wonder if the Keystone spill will effectively render that asset as unsaleable in 2023,” he wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. “Instead, we turn our attention to selling a 49 per cent stake in NGTL (the Nova Gas Transmission Line).”

Speaking at TC Energy’s investor day in December, chief executive officer Francois Poirier said “there are no sacred cows” when it comes to shedding assets to bankroll growth and pay down debt in 2023.

While the company is best-known for its Keystone oil pipeline system, a Canada-U.S. artery that grabbed headlines for an expansion project that ultimately failed, natural gas distribution is a larger part of TC Energy’s business.

Kwan says selling a 49 per cent non-controlling stake in NGTL could be worth $12 billion. According to TC Energy, the 24,494 km line connects most of the natural gas production in western Canada to domestic and export markets.

“We think the time has come to go big and leave no doubt, and based on our discussions with investors, we believe this may be a path to share price outperformance in 2023,” he wrote. “We believe an asset monetization program in the $10 to $15 billion range could provide numerous benefits to the company.”

Toronto-listed TC Energy shares added 1.51 per cent on Thursday to 56.64 at 12:29 p.m. ET. The stock has fallen about 10 per cent in the past 12 months, bucking the trend as Canadian energy stocks benefited from higher commodity prices in 2022.

Kwan maintains an “outperform” rating on TC Energy’s stock, with a $73 per share price target.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

Brazil police find draft decree in ex-minister's house to revert election -source

Brazil's Minister of Justice and Public Security Anderson Torres walks on the day of a news conference at Headquarters of the Federal Highway Police in Brasilia

Thu, January 12, 2023 
By Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian police found a draft decree in the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro's justice minister that appears to be a proposal to interfere in the result of the October election he lost, two people familiar with the investigation said on Thursday.

The proposed decree, elaborated after Bolsonaro's narrow defeat by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, would establish an emergency "state of defense" for the national election authority, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), opening the door to altering the result, the sources said.

The document was found on Tuesday when police searched the home of Anderson Torres, who became security chief for Brasilia after Lula took office on Jan. 1, the people said.

A Supreme Court justice ordered the arrest of Torres in connection with the security failures that allowed Bolsonaro supporters to storm government buildings on Sunday trying to provoke a military coup that would oust Lula.

The discovery of the document was first reported by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

Torres, who left Brazil for Florida after becoming Brasilia security chief, said on social media that the reported document was likely among others in a stack being thrown out and was "leaked" in his absence to create a "false narrative."

"I respect Brazilian democracy. My conscience is clear regarding my actions as minister," Torres wrote.

Analysts said the measures proposed in the document would amount to an unconstitutional conspiracy to meddle in the election.

A lawyer for the former justice minister, Demostenes Torres told Reuters he was not aware of the document, but noted that it was "impossible" to change the election result.

The lawyer said his client would return to Brasilia on Friday to prepare his defense against the arrest warrant relating to Sunday's insurrection in the capital.

The document was ready for presidential signature, the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Bolsonaro, who also flew to Florida 48 hours before his term ended, has still not conceded defeat by Lula.

He briefly posted a video this week on social media suggesting Lula had in fact lost the election. In the run-up to the election, Bolsonaro insisted that Brazil's electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud, although he has never provided evidence to support his claims.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes and Alistair Bell)

Revoke Bolsonaro's visa, 41 U.S. Democrats urge Biden administration


Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Florida

Thu, January 12, 2023 
By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Forty-one Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives asked President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday to cooperate with Brazil's investigation into violent protests in Brasilia and revoke any U.S. visas held by former President Jair Bolsonaro.

They sent a letter calling on the administration to support democracy and the rule of law in Brazil. "Furthermore, we must not allow Mr. Bolsonaro or any other former Brazilian officials to take refuge in the United States to escape justice for any crimes they may have committed when in office," the letter said.

Far-right Bolsonaro flew to Florida two days before his term ended on Jan. 1 and leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office.


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

State Department and White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

The State Department has said repeatedly its policy is not to discuss specific visa cases. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had not received any specific requests from Brazil over Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro has said on social media that he would return to Brazil earlier than planned for medical reasons. He has denied inciting his supporters and said the rioters "crossed the line."

The letter was led by U.S. Representatives Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat and former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Joaquin Castro, Ruben Gallego, Chuy Garcia and Susan Wild.

Biden joined other world leaders in condemning Sunday's violence in Brazil.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Congress Ramps Up Pressure to Kick Out Bolsonaro as US Bides Time



Courtney McBride
Thu, January 12, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats added to pressure on President Joe Biden to kick Jair Bolsonaro out of the country, even as US officials stick to a wait-and-see approach in hopes that the former Brazilian president will make good on a promise to return home on his own.

In a letter dated Thursday, 46 congressional Democrats urged Biden to remove Bolsonaro in light of the Jan. 8 attacks by his supporters on government buildings in Brasilia, the capital. They said the violence was “built upon months of pre- and post-election fabrications by Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies” about the October election that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly won.

“The United States must not provide shelter for him, or any authoritarian who has inspired such violence against democratic institutions,” the lawmakers wrote, calling on the US to “cooperate fully with any investigation by the Brazilian government into their actions, if requested.”

The letter added to pressure on Biden to do something about Bolsonaro, who traveled to Florida days before Lula’s inauguration on what he said was a vacation. Bolsonaro was seen eating at a KFC and strolling through a Publix supermarket in Florida after he arrived on Dec. 30.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin joined the chorus Thursday evening, urging Biden to rescind authorization for Bolsonaro to remain in the country.

“The United States must not be a safe haven for those who seek to undermine free and fair democratic elections or the peaceful democratic transfer of power, particularly by inciting violence, regardless of the position of power they previously held,” Durbin wrote in his letter to the president.

A former Bolsonaro spokesperson, who remains a friend of his family, didn’t immediately reply to a message seeking more information on the former president’s intentions.

What was initially seen as a bizarre quirk of Brazilian post-election politics became much more serious after last Sunday’s riots by Bolsonaro supporters, and the Biden administration began to assess whether it ought to intervene in some way. That quandary appeared to take care of itself when Bolsonaro, who was briefly hospitalized near Orlando for abdominal pains, told CNN Brasil he would cut short his trip and return home.

But Bolsonaro still hasn’t gone back to Brazil, and the Biden administration is again facing questions about what to do — and whether trying to expel him out would touch off a messy legal battle. It’s believed Bolsonaro came to the US on a diplomatic visa, given that he was still in office at the time of his arrival. The State Department, which wouldn’t comment on Bolsonaro’s specific case, says an individual has 30 days to depart the US or change visa status after leaving government service.

Biden could have the authority to declare Bolsonaro persona non grata and order him out of the country. But that measure is generally used for a foreign diplomat, not a head of state, and it’s not clear if it applies in this case. If Bolsonaro believed he faced the risk of jail by returning home, he could seek asylum or challenge a move to extradite him in US courts.

“This is very complicated and it has to do with international law, the US law, the Vienna Conventions, international customary law and the Constitution,” said Denyse Sabagh, a partner at Duane Morris LLP who specializes in immigration and nationality law.

“You can see many different avenues where, depending on what the US did, his lawyers would argue that he would be entitled to some relief here in the United States,” she said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken declined even to say Bolsonaro’s name when asked about his case at a briefing on Wednesday.

“We’re talking now about people who are private citizens,” Blinken said. “We’ve heard various public statements that have been made by those individuals about their plans, but we really don’t have anything to add.”

Blinken pointed out that Lula has called for an investigation into the riots but that the US hadn’t received “any specific requests from Brazilian authorities” — indicating that so far Brazilian authorities hadn’t sought to extradite Bolsonaro.

“Of course, if and when we do, we’ll work expeditiously to respond, as we always do,” Blinken said.

Another question is whether Lula even wants Bolsonaro to return to Brazil.

Bolsonaro’s presence could “have a destabilizing impact on not only the country, but also on the ability for Lula to govern,” Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, said in an interview.

Bolsonaro could use his supporters’ anger “to try to continue his relevance and his power in Brazil,” Marczak said. “I think he will try to make it increasingly politically problematic to levy charges against him.”

Although Bolsonaro criticized the riots, he also has continued to feed the disinformation that supporters who participated have embraced, sharing a video of voter fraud conspiracies on Facebook that was deleted hours later.

--With assistance from Daniel Carvalho.

Brazil reckons with artistic treasures ruined in riot









Protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, storm the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil.

 (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)


MARIO LOBAO and DAVID BILLER
Thu, January 12, 2023 at 5:28 PM MST·2 min read

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The horde of rioters who invaded government buildings on Jan. 8 in an attack on Brazil's democracy left behind a trail of destruction whose full scope is only now coming into full view.

Following a painstaking survey of the ruins, the national artistic heritage institute on Thursday night released a 50-page report, the bulk of which is a photographic catalog of the damages. They go far beyond the shattered glass on the exteriors of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, all architectural icons.

Modernist furniture was burned, portraits defaced, sculptures decapitated and ceramics smashed. Carpets were found soaked with water from the buildings' sprinkler systems, as well as with urine.

The rioters — die-hard supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat — marred the iconic marble ramp leading up the presidential palace with scratches, some stretching two feet in length, according to the report. Into a historic wooden table at the Supreme Court they carved “Supreme are the people” — a phrase popular among backers of Bolsonaro, who often strained against the checks of the top court.

Among the artworks destroyed was a 17th-century clock made by Balthazar Martinot and that the French royal court gifted to the Portuguese King. The only other Martinot clock in existence is in France’s Palace of Versailles, though is half the size, Brazil's presidency said in a statement. A 60-year-old bronze sculpture of a flautist by Bruno Giorgi was also thrashed (should this be trashed?), and its pieces found spread across a room on the presidential palace's third floor.

Vandals pitched rocks through the canvas of a mural by Emiliano Di Calvalcanti. The presidential palace said in its statement that the painting, “As Mulatas”, is valued at some $1.5 million, though works of that size tend to fetch quintuple that amount at auction.

“The damage was not random, it was obviously deliberate," Rogerio Carvalho, the presidential palace's curator, said in an interview while sitting before the disfigured painting. The work "was perforated in seven places using rocks taken from the square with a pickaxe. Which is to say, there is a movement of intolerance toward what this palace represents.”

The total cost of the destruction hasn't yet been established. Senate president Rodrigo Pacheco placed the damage in his congressional chamber alone in the millions.

The day after the uprising, Justice Minister Flávio Dino said Federal Police surveys will enable the attorney-general's office to hold perpetrators financially responsible.

This collection “is an artistic treasure of the Brazilian people, which belongs to the nation and whose integrity needs to be respected,” Brazil’s culture minister, Margareth Menezes, told reporters on Tuesday. “The idea is to create a memorial about this violence we suffered, so that it never happens again.”

__

AP writer Biller reported from Rio de Janeiro

BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID

Brazil rioters plotted openly online, pitched huge 'party'





Protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, clash with police as they storm the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil. 

(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

JOSHUA GOODMAN and DAVID KLEPPER
Wed, January 11, 2023 

MIAMI (AP) — The map was called “Beach Trip” and was blasted out to more than 18,000 members of a public Telegram channel called, in Portuguese, “Hunting and Fishing.”

But instead of outdoor recreation tips, the 43 pins spread across the map of Brazil pointed to cities where bus transportation to the capital could be found for what promoters promised would a huge “party” on Jan. 8.

“Children and the elderly aren’t invited,” according to the post circulated on the Telegram channel, which has since been removed. “Only adults willing to participate in all the games, including target shooting of police and robbers, musical chairs, indigenous dancing, tag, and others.”

The post was one of several thinly coded messages circulating on social media ahead of Sunday's violent attack on the capital by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro looking to restore the far-right leader to power.


It’s also now a potentially vital lead in a fledgling criminal investigation about how the rampage was organized and how officials missed clues to a conspiracy that, like the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, appears to have been organized and carried out in plain view.

And like the attack in the U.S., the Brazilian riots demonstrate how social media makes it easier than ever for anti-democratic groups to recruit followers and transform online rhetoric into offline action.

On YouTube, rioters livestreaming the mayhem racked up hundreds of thousands of views before a Brazilian judge ordered social media platforms to remove such content. Misleading claims about the election and the uprising also could be found on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.

But even before Sunday's riot, social media and private messaging networks in Brazil were being flooded with calls for one final push to overturn the October election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — something authorities appear to have inexplicably missed or ignored.

Most of the online chatter referred to the planned gathering at Brasilia's Three Powers Plaza as “Selma’s party” — a play on the Portuguese word for “selva,” a battle cry used by Brazil’s military.

Participants were told to bring their own mask to protect against “pepper pie in the face” — or pepper spray fired by security forces. They also were told to dress in the green and yellow of Brazil’s flag — and not the red preferred by Lula's Workers’ Party.

“Get ready guests, the party will be a blast,” the widely-circulated post said.

“It was all in the open,” said David Nemer, a Brazil native and University of Virginia professor who studies social media. “They listed the people responsible for buses, with their full names and contact information. They weren’t trying to hide anything.”

Still, it's unclear to what extent social media was responsible for the worst attack on Brazil’s democracy in decades. Only a handful of far-right activists showed up at gas terminals and refineries that were also pinpointed on the “Beach Trip” map as locations for demonstrations planned for Sunday.

Bruno Fonseca, a journalist for Agencia Publica, a digital investigative journalism outlet, has tracked the online activities of pro-Bolsonaro groups for years. He said the activists live in a state of constant confrontation but sometimes, their frequent calls to mobilize fall flat.

“It's difficult to know when something will jump out from social media and not,” said Fonseca, who in a report this week traced the spread of the “Selma's Party” post to users who appear to be bots.

Still, he said, authorities could have paired the online activity with other intelligence-gathering tools to investigate, for example, a surge in bus traffic to the capital before the attacks. He said their inaction may reflect negligence or the deep support for Bolsonaro among security forces.

One gnawing question is why, on the day of the chaos, Anderson Torres, a Bolsonaro ally who had just been named the top security official in Brasilia, was reportedly in Florida — where his former boss was on a retreat. Torres was swiftly fired and Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered his arrest pending an investigation. Torres denied any wrongdoing and said he would return to Brazil and present his defense.

Sunday's violence came after Brazilian voters were bombarded by a flood of false and misleading claims before last fall’s vote. Much of the content focused on unfounded concerns about electronic voting, and some featured threats of violent retaliation if Bolsonaro was defeated.

One of the most popular rallying cries used by Bolsonaro's supporters was #BrazilianSpring, a term coined by former Trump aide Steve Bannon in the hours after Bolsonaro's defeat to Lula.

“We all know that this Brazilian election was going to be contentious,” said Flora Rebello Arduini, a London-based campaign director with SumOfUs, a nonprofit that tracked extremist content before and after Brazil’s election. “Social media platforms played a vital role in amplifying far-right extremist voices and even calls for violent uprising. If we can identify this kind of content, then so can they (the companies). Incompetence is not an excuse.”

Brazil’s capital city steeled itself Wednesday for the possibility of new attacks fueled by social media posts, including one circulating on Telegram calling for a “mega protest to retake power.” But those protests fizzled.

In response to the criticism, spokespeople for Telegram, YouTube and Facebook said their companies were working to remove content urging more violence.

“Telegram is a platform for free speech and peaceful protest,” Telegram spokesman Remi Vaughn wrote in a statement to the AP. “Calls to violence are explicitly forbidden and dozens of public communities where such calls were being made have been blocked in Brazil in the past week — both proactively as per our Terms of Service as well as in response to court orders.”

A YouTube spokeswoman said the platform has removed more than 2,500 channels and more than 10,000 videos related to the election in Brazil.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has prioritized efforts to combat harmful content about Brazil's election, a company spokesman told The Associated Press.

—

Klepper reported from Washington, D.C.

Blame the voting machines: Brazil riots fit global pattern


Anuj Chopra, with Luiza Queiroz in Sao Paulo and Rossen Bossev in Sofia
Wed, January 11, 2023


Mobs of rioters who stormed Brazil's seats of power raised conspiracy-laden slogans against voting machines, a prime target of disinformation campaigns seeking to undermine trust in electoral systems around the world.

Far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's supporters, who invaded the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court in the capital Brasilia on Sunday, demanded access to the "source code" of electronic voting machines.

That slogan effectively questioned the reliability of voting equipment after a bitterly contested election that saw Bolsonaro defeated by his leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.


The right-wing rage was the latest illustration of the impact of disinformation campaigns that have sought to cast doubt on voting machines from the United States to France, Bulgaria and the Philippines.

"This scenario of rioting and insurrection over baseless theories fueled by technology opacity are very dangerous for the stability of global democracies," Gregory Miller, the co-founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit OSET Institute, told AFP.

Brazil has used voting machines in its elections since 1996, but they only recently became mired in controversy, with Bolsonaro leading allegations that they were plagued by fraud.

No major security flaw has ever been detected, with political parties, the judiciary and the military allowed to inspect the source code and tests conducted by technology experts to protect against hacking.

- Trumpian playbook -

The Brazilian riots bore chilling similarities to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by supporters of former president Donald Trump, who claimed the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

Far-right campaigns falsely asserted that voting machines manipulated votes away from Trump in 2020. Voting technology companies have filed a flurry of lawsuits against Trump allies and media outlets for false claims that they rigged the vote.

Still, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections in the United States, conspiracy-endorsing Republican politicians amped up their rhetoric against the machines as two swing state counties moved to allow hand counting.

The contentious push for hand counting came even though US experts warned that it is often less accurate than machine counting and prone to delays.

A 2018 study published in the Election Law Journal analyzed two statewide recounts in Wisconsin, including the 2016 presidential election. It found that "vote counts originally conducted by computerized scanners were, on average, more accurate."

But the rhetoric against the machines continued after the widely anticipated Republican "red wave" failed to materialize in the November midterms.

Steve Bannon, Trump's former aide who has been sentenced to four months prison for disobeying a subpoena to testify on the January 6 Capitol attack, was closely involved with the Bolsonaro team's spread of misinformation.

In November, Bannon pushed the baseless claim that electronic voting machines were used in Brazil "to steal elections." On Sunday, Bannon lauded the Brazilian rioters on social media as "freedom fighters."

- 'Robust checks' -

Citing the examples of the United States and Brazil, far-right French politician Florian Philippot tweeted earlier this week that electronic voting bred "doubt, fraud, chaos."

His comments followed a series of online claims that bugs affecting electronic voting machines favored Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the 2022 presidential election, which he won.

The claims were widely dismissed by media watchdogs such as NewsGuard and AFP's factcheckers debunked several false claims about the reliability of voting equipment in France.

But Philippot still cast doubt on electronic voting.

"Let's eliminate all machine voting in France," the politician wrote on Twitter.

Similar distrust has been rampant in Bulgaria.

In 2021, Bulgaria's parliament passed a law to introduce machine voting amid widespread suspicion of fraud with paper ballots.

However, paper ballots were returned the following year after sustained disinformation campaigns eroded public trust in the machines. Traditional parties implied, without offering consistent evidence, that the machines were unreliable and prone to manipulation.

To eliminate such fears, Miller argued for an "urgent" need for democracies to make election infrastructure fully transparent to the public.

Experts such as Pamela Smith also called on countries to collate "hard election evidence" to boost public confidence in machine voting.

"We advocate for a physical record of voter intent, used in robust post-election checks on the machine-reported outcome, with plenty of transparency," Smith, president of the nonpartisan nonprofit Verified Voting, told AFP.

"Every country should work toward that goal. An election outcome... should not be subverted by whoever shouts the loudest."

burs-ac/bgs/mlm

First to fall after Brasilia riots: the Bolsonarista running capital security


 Brazil's Minister of Justice Anderson Torres looks on next to Brazil's President and candidate for re-election Jair Bolsonaro during a news conference at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia

Wed, January 11, 2023
By Gabriel Stargardter and Brad Haynes

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - When Brazilian rioters stormed government buildings in Brasilia on Sunday, the man tasked with keeping the city safe was a continent away in Florida - the same state his ex-boss, former President Jair Bolsonaro, had relocated to after losing last year's election.

Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro's justice minister from 2021 to 2022, took a job as Brasilia security chief after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office on Jan. 1.

He did not last long. Within hours of the Jan. 8 invasion of Brazil's presidential palace, Supreme Court and Congress by election-denying Bolsonaro supporters, Torres had lost his new gig - becoming the first to fall in recriminations after the worst assault on Brazil's institutions since the country's return to democracy in the 1980s.

"This was a structured sabotage operation, commanded by Bolsonaro's ex-minister Anderson Torres," Ricardo Cappelli, the official leading a post-invasion federal intervention into Brasilia's public security, told CNN Brasil.

"Torres took over as secretary for security (in Brasilia), dismissed the whole chain of command and then took a trip. If that's not sabotage, I don't know what is."

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an arrest warrant for Torres on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear what the charges were, but Moraes cited alleged "omission" and "connivance" by Torres.

Later on Tuesday, Torres said he would return to Brazil, hand himself over to authorities and prepare his defense.

"My actions have always been driven by ethics and legality," he wrote on Twitter.

Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of the federal district, sacked Torres amid the chaos on Sunday afternoon, just hours before a Supreme Court order suspended Rocha from office for 90 days.

The shakeup of capital security highlights a wider challenge facing Lula, whose new government must now deal with a sweeping criminal investigation of the Brasilia riots while establishing a fresh chain of command among police and security forces.

Many rank-and-file officers have long sympathized with the law-and-order appeal of Bolsonaro's hard-right politics, and the former president spent the past four years stacking federal law enforcement organs with loyalists.

For example, the appointment of Torres, 47, at the Justice Ministry followed years of friendly relations with Bolsonaro's family.

As police dug into graft allegations against Bolsonaro's sons early in his term, then-Justice Minister Sergio Moro accused the president of trying to swap the head of the federal police to protect them. Bolsonaro denied any such interference.

When Moro quit in April 2020 over the alleged meddling, Brazilian media reported that the president had suggested Torres to run the federal police, but his former colleagues there resisted the idea due to his lack of seniority.

At the time, Torres was in his first stint as security chief for the federal district under Rocha, where he remained until the president tapped him for the Justice Ministry in March 2021.

Within a week, Torres, with Bolsonaro's approval, replaced the head of the federal police. He also replaced the head of the federal highway police (PRF) with Silvinei Vasques, whose name would hang over last year's election.

During the Oct. 30 runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro, the PRF faced accusations of conducting illegal highway roadblocks in Lula strongholds in northeastern Brazil, in what critics said amounted to voter suppression efforts.

Vasques, who had campaigned openly for Bolsonaro on social media, was charged in November with abusing his role to favor Bolsonaro politically and was dismissed last month.

Torres came under fire for his close involvement with PRF operations during the election but did not face charges.

Formally questioned by the Supreme Court about allegations of voter suppression, Torres denied interfering in the election.

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter in Rio de Janeiro and Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo; Additional reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Editing by Bradley Perrett)

Brazil government acts against Bolsonaro backers, new protest fizzles





Aftermath of Brazil's anti-democratic riots

Wed, January 11, 2023
By Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian federal prosecutors on Wednesday requested the investigation of three congressional allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly inciting the worst attack on the country's democratic institutions in decades.

The call for the probe came as the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had prepared stepped-up security measures to face renewed protests on Wednesday, but mass demonstrations proposed on pro-Bolsonaro social media to "retake power" failed to materialize.

Police said 1,159 people arrested in connection with Sunday's storming of government building in Brasilia remained in custody. Some 684 others were released for "humanitarian reasons" after detention, including elderly people, those with health issues and parents of young children, police said.

Organizers of the anti-government demonstrations have called in recent weeks on social media to block roads and refineries, bring down power lines and cause enough chaos to prompt a military coup to overturn the election that Bolsonaro lost to Lula last October.

Ricardo Cappelli, the federal official in charge of public security in the capital appointed in the wake of Sunday's riots, said all security forces had been mobilized to prevent a repeat of the rampage, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters staged protests in Brasilia, ransacking the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential offices.

"Those who lost the election and are trying to create a crisis will not succeed," Cappelli told a news conference.

Lula said on Wednesday that those involved in Sunday's attack would have the right to defend themselves but any proven wrongdoing will be punished. He also criticized Bolsonaro for not accepting the election result and called those who stormed and vandalized public buildings in the capital "crazy".

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued a ban on roadblocks that have been used by anti-government demonstrators to create economic disruption, and ordered local authorities to prevent the storming of public buildings.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Moraes's arrest warrant for Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro's former justice minister who oversaw public security in Brasilia during Sunday's riots. Moraes accused Torres of "negligence and connivance".

Torres was fired for his failure to stop Sunday's chaos and his arrest warrant alleged complicity with the demonstrators, who marched to the center of the capital under police escort. Torres said on Tuesday he would return to Brazil to face charges from Florida, where he has been on vacation since before the riots.

Moraes also ordered the arrest of Fabio Augusto Vieira, the head of Brasilia's military police, one of a number of officials responsible for protecting government buildings in Brasilia. Vieira hasn't made any public comment since the order was issued.

The court also upheld the 90-day removal from office of former Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, Torres's former boss.

Prosecutors have also sought to freeze Bolsonaro's assets.

Despite the threat of new protests, Brazilian financial markets closed higher, with Brazil's benchmark stock index Bovespa rising 1.5%.

"So far, despite the polarized environment, evidenced by a violent invasion of Brazil's state buildings on Jan. 8, we see reasons to believe that governability will not be an immediate issue," economists at JPMorgan said.

Bolsonaro, who left Brazil 48 hours before his term ended at the end of December and has yet to concede defeat to Lula, told media from Florida that he planned to return to Brazil earlier than planned for medical reasons, without specifying a date.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia, Steven Grattan and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes, Chizu Nomiyama, Deepa Babington and Kenneth Maxwell)

Bolsonaro party boss says violent Brasilia protesters will be expelled

 Brazil's Liberal Party President Valdemar Costa Neto attends a news conference in Brasilia

Wed, January 11, 2023 
By Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The leader of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro's political party said on Wednesday that any member identified in videos taking part in the ransacking of government buildings on Sunday would be immediately expelled from the party.

Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the right-wing Liberal Party, said his party, the largest in Brazil's Congress, condemned the rampage on Sunday in which Bolsonaro supporters vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace.

"If members of the party are seen on videos smashing up those government buildings, we will expel them right away," he said in an interview, adding that the vandalism was caused by an extremist minority that did not represent his party.

Bolsonaro, an anti-establishment populist who joined the party to have a electoral vehicle for last year's election, has yet to concede defeat to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He has not publicly condemned supporters who protested his loss and called for a military coup to restore him to power.

Costa Neto's party has sought to distance itself from the violence as it seeks to lead the opposition to Lula. The party became the largest in both chambers of Congress thanks to Bolsonaro's popularity, though the far-right leader himself narrowly lost his bid for re-election.

Lula's 11-day-old government braced on Wednesday for fresh demonstrations to "retake power" called by Bolsonaro supporters.

Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for Florida 48 hours before his term ended, said on social media that he would return to Brazil earlier than planned for medical reasons.

Costa Neto told Reuters he hopes Bolsonaro will return to Brazil soon to lead Brazil's political right into local elections in 2024 and become its presidential candidate in 2026.

Party officials said Bolsonaro's absence from the country was squandering the political capital that he gained in the election, in which 58 million Brazilians voted for him.

While the PL party has recognized the election result, Bolsonaro has suggested without any evidence that the election was stolen by manipulating Brazil's electronic voting system.

Costa Neto said Bolsonaro's charisma will help the party grow further in municipal elections next year when he expects the PL to increase the number of affiliated mayors from 352 at present to at least 1,500.

"All he needs to do is appear and he draws crowds," said Costa Neto, whose party is flush with 1.2 billion reais ($232 million) from a public election fund, based on the number of seats it won in the lower chamber of Congress.

Bolsonaro, whose nationalist populism sharply polarized Brazil's electorate during his four-year term, has been named honorary president of the PL. He and his wife Michelle Bolsonaro will have offices at party headquarters with paid salaries.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito; Editing by Brad Haynes and Deepa Babington)

Exclusive-U.S. and Brazil lawmakers seek to cooperate on investigation of Brasilia riots


Supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brasilia

Wed, January 11, 2023 
By Gram Slattery, Brad Haynes and Maria Carolina Marcello

WASHINGTON/BRASILIA (Reuters) -U.S. and Brazilian lawmakers are looking for ways to cooperate on an investigation into violent protests that rampaged through Brasilia this weekend, sharing lessons from inquiries into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, people familiar with the talks said.

The initial discussions occurred as more than 70 lawmakers in the two countries signed a joint statement denouncing "anti-democratic" forces trying to overturn recent elections in their nations with political violence.

Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace on Sunday, calling for a military coup to overturn the October election won by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the recently dissolved House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, is one lawmaker whose office is discussing collaboration, according to one of the sources.

"I am extremely proud of the January 6 Select Committee's work and final report. If (it) serves as a model for similar investigations, I will help out in anyway possible," Thompson said in a written statement.

Brazil's Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco has also discussed the idea of such an exchange with the top U.S. diplomat in Brasilia, said another person familiar with the conversation.

The source, who is close to Pacheco, said the U.S. embassy's chargé d'affaires, Douglas Koneff, was receptive to the idea of sharing know-how from the investigation of then-President Donald Trump's supporters who attacked the Capitol in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election win.

Pacheco's office and the U.S. embassy in Brasilia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had not received any specific requests from Brazil regarding the recent violence in Brasilia, but it would respond "expeditiously" if and when a request arrives.

Separately, a group of 74 federal lawmakers in the United States and Brazil released a joint statement on Wednesday condemning the political violence in Brasilia and Washington that came two years and two days apart.

The statement, signed mainly by progressive lawmakers in both countries, was articulated by the Washington Brazil Office, a group promoting bilateral dialogue in defense of human rights and sustainable development.

"It is no secret that ultra-right agitators in Brazil and the United States are coordinating efforts," they wrote, citing ties between associates of Trump and Bolsonaro. "Just as far right extremists are coordinating their efforts to undermine democracy, we must stand united in our efforts to protect it."

The Jan. 6 committee's final report, released last month, said Trump should face criminal charges for inciting the deadly riot. The report listed 17 specific findings, discussed the legal implications of actions by the former president and some of his associates and included criminal referrals of Trump and other individuals to the Justice Department.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington, Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo and Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia; Editing by Christian Plumb, Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman)

Sunak’s stop-start policies harming UK green investment, says net zero tsar

Helena Horton and Fiona Harvey
Thu, 12 January 2023 


Rishi Sunak has been criticised by his own net zero tsar, who says the UK risks missing its green targets due to inconsistent policies and lack of commitment to pledges.

In his net zero review, seen by the Guardian, Chris Skidmore said a large barrier to renewable energy was a lack of confidence in the government, which has inconsistent policy support for green energy, with measures such as Sunak’s new electricity tax.

Skidmore, the Conservative MP for Kingswood, was asked by the former prime minister Liz Truss to write a review on the policy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. He was asked to find out what was working with the policy regarding not putting more carbon into the atmosphere than the UK absorbs, and to make the business case for the goal.


One issue mentioned throughout the report is a lack of policy commitment. Skidmore said: “The overwhelming impression I got was we will make net zero more affordable if we are able to deliver further and faster, which requires certainty and consistency of approach. We need to de-risk investment, which will actually drive down the costs of net zero, and if the recommendations put forward by my review are followed we will create incentives to invest in renewables.

“The review recognises we have fallen behind, but it sets out how we can be world-leading in these areas once again. We need to remove the barriers that are in place at the moment.”

Related: Liz Truss appoints green Tory Chris Skidmore to lead net zero review

Dan McGrail, chief executive of the trade body RenewableUK, said: “Sudden policy changes like the imposition of the electricity generator levy, which kicked in at the start of this year, have put investment at risk.”

Chris Hewett, chief executive of the trade association Solar Energy UK, said: “Skidmore is right to demand the replacement of stop-start policies with certainty for investors.”

Skidmore cited agriculture as one of the main culprits of carbon emissions, and said its share of emissions could, by 2030, grow from 12% to 30%. To encourage people to eat more environmentally friendly foods, Skidmore recommended “eco-labelling” rather than a tax or ban on foods such as red meat.

He also said that farmers had been disincentivised from farming in an environmentally friendly way by the confusion around the government’s post-Brexit nature-friendly agriculture payments, and that there had been missed opportunities for nature-based solutions with most policy focused on woodlands and peatland rather than many other carbon sinks such as wetlands.

In the review, Skidmore called for a stable policy environment, with consistent support for renewables, as well as a reform of the way the government financially helps renewable energy projects to make that more attractive for investors.

But climate campaigners criticised the review for being unambitious and for not calling for strong policies to avert the climate crisis.

Doug Parr, policy director for Greenpeace UK, said: “Whilst there is much useful analysis of the problem the review stops short of recommending the kind of muscular policies that would really drive change towards the massive growth in renewables which will be necessary.

“Without a strong push from government the renewables revolution will still proceed, because the economic logic dictates it should. But it won’t happen at the pace it needs to in order to forestall some of the worst effects of climate change.”

While the review says the UK needs a “rooftop revolution” for solar panels and suggests making planning decisions easier to enable this, it stops short of recommending mandates for solar panels on new builds, or more funding to encourage take-up.

Parr added: “All credible scenarios of our future economy rely on renewable energy being the backbone of the future energy system, and the review should have said government needs to change the remit of the regulator to include net zero delivery, insist on solar panels being on new roofs, expand the scale of renewables contracts and rapidly lay out the location of the offshore electricity grid. Instead, the government seem like a mildly curious spectator, wondering why their aspirations aren’t materialising without ever intervening to make them happen.”

The renewable energy industry has tentatively welcomed the review, with industry leaders saying it contains good ideas that should be adopted by the government.

McGrail said: “If the government is looking to increase the economic benefits of the UK’s decarbonisation ambitions, Chris Skidmore’s review has some really clear easy wins. As he suggests, setting targets for new onshore wind and solar capacity would certainly increase investor confidence, as well as ensuring we can decarbonise our electricity system by 2035.”

He also praised Skidmore for promoting the use of “a wide range of renewables to strengthen Britain’s energy security, including innovative technologies like floating wind and tidal stream”.

He said that he would have liked the review to have told the government to take a “war room” approach to tackling grid connectivity, “with the prime minister bringing all relevant bodies together to address this urgently”.

Hewett said: “We very much hope that Whitehall will embrace his call to establish a joint taskforce with the solar industry to work on a roadmap for reaching 70GW of solar [capacity] by 2035 – about four-and-a-half times what we have now.

“The number-one priority of this group will have to be unblocking access to the grid – which is pushing back the completion of many large projects well into the next decade.”

Polly Billington, chief executive of the UK100 group of local government leaders, said the review showed that local authorities must play a leading role in implementing policy. “This independent review confirms what UK100 has been saying for years: local authorities are the key to achieving the UK’s net zero goals,” she said.

“[We particularly welcome] the recommendation to end the disjointed mess of short-term, competitive local authority funding pots. This move would help communities maximise the economic and social benefits of net zero while making the most cost-effective use of resources.”

Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, said: “Another day, another Conservative MP calling out the total failure of this government over many years to act with the urgency and consistency that the climate crisis demands. Chris Skidmore is right about the fact that 13 years of delay, dither and a refusal to go all-in on a green energy sprint under the Conservatives, is depriving our country of the economic opportunities climate action offers.

“The tragedy is that Rishi Sunak is making things even worse. He is a fossil fuel prime minister in a renewable age who has never understood what this report reaffirms – that going green is pro-business, pro-worker and is a vital part of growing our economy.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has been approached for comment.

UK Review Advises ‘Step Change’ in Approach to Climate Change

Ellen Milligan
Thu, 12 January 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- The UK needs “a step change” in its approach to slashing carbon emissions if it is to eliminate greenhouse gases by 2050, according to a review commissioned by the government.

The country is not doing enough to invest in projects that benefit the economy and climate, according to the review obtained by Bloomberg ahead of its planned release on Friday. The deployment of green technologies is being held-back by ““a lack of long-term thinking, siloed behaviour from government departments, and uncertainty over the length of funding commitments,” it said.

The review was commissioned in the fall by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, to scrutinize UK green policies and ensure they increase energy security and affordability while delivering on a national goal to achieve so-called “net zero” emissions by mid-century. It was prepared by Chris Skidmore, a Conservative former energy minister.

“We must deliver greater certainty, consistency, and clarity across net zero policy making,” Skidmore wrote in his foreword to the 340-page document. “Climate commitments and net zero targets remain just words on a page without a clear, consistent, and stable transition plan.”

Skidmore made 25 recommendations for policies to be advanced by 2025 in order to go “further, faster.” They include legislating to phase out gas boilers for household heating by 2033, setting out a clear roadmap to roll out carbon capture and storage technology and devising a plan for a fivefold increase in installed solar power in the next 12 years.

The recommendations come with the UK already likely to be in a prolonged recession, and Sunak under pressure to roll-out more policies aimed at growing the economy and reducing the country’s energy dependence.

Opportunity of the Century

Skidmore recommended the government publish a financing strategy by the end of this year to show how government spending and policies will be used to help scale up private financing and deliver projects geared toward net zero. He also recommended establishing an “Office for Net Zero Delivery” responsible for putting emissions reductions at the heart of all government policy.

“We have heard from businesses that economic opportunities are being missed today because of weaknesses in the UK’s investment environment,” he said.

Skidmore’s review described the pursuit of net zero as the “economic opportunity of the 21st century,” and said the UK is now at a “crossroads.”

“We can either go further and faster in the transition, capitalizing on our comparative advantages on clean technologies, our world class science base, our global leadership on financial services and the natural power reserves of the North Sea,” it said. “Or we can hold up our hands and say it is too difficult and watch our world-leading sectors, such as the City of London or our advanced car manufacturing, pack up and move on, taking high-skilled, high-paying jobs with them.”

The review identified 10 “missions” for the UK to pursue:

Create a plan to deliver the grid infrastructure needed to accelerate the deployment of onshore and offshore power projects


Ramp up solar power to 70 gigawatts of capacity by 2035, from just under 14 gigawatts now


Work with communities to deploy more onshore wind


Roll-out more nuclear power through a structured program covering the whole supply chain


Invest in long-term carbon-capture and hydrogen technologies


Step up recycling and the reuse of critical materials


Unblock the planning system and hand more power to local authorities


Work toward gas-free homes by 2035


Restore natural habitats


Set a roadmap for research, development and technology with more agile regulation

“When one of the governing party’s own MPs says tackling the climate crisis is the economic opportunity of the century, may we hope that ministers will finally listen” Greenpeace UK’s policy director Doug Parr said in a statement. “We have all seen what our dependence on fossil fuels is doing to our world - from devastating floods and heat-waves to budget-busting energy bills.”

--With assistance from William Mathis.

School strikes will go ahead in Glasgow on Monday after no new offer made to teachers

Stewart Paterson
Thu, 12 January 2023

(Image: Newsquest)

MORE school strikes will go ahead next week after teachers’ unions said no new offer has been made by the Scottish Government and Cosla.

Unions met with employers in the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers today but ended with no resolution.

The EIS, Scotland’s largest teachers’ union, said the next phase of industrial action will take place as planned.

READ MORE: Teachers blast Nicola Sturgeon amid Glasgow school strikes

It means schools in Glasgow will be shut on Monday.

It comes after primary schools were shut on Tuesday this week and secondary schools on Wednesday, as the EIS, SSTA and NASUWT unions took co-ordinated strike action.

The unions are calling for a 10% pay rise while the employers have offered 5.5% with slightly more for teachers on the lowest salaries.

Cosla said 10% is "unaffordable".

Andrea Bradley, EIS general secretary, said, “Despite their warm words over the past week, the Scottish Government and Cosla have again failed to come to the table with a new pay offer to Scotland’s teachers.

“Our members are not prepared to accept the repeatedly reheated sub-inflationary offer that has now been sitting around for six months, and that is neither fair nor affordable for teachers.

“In the absence of an improved offer, our members will continue with strike action from Monday of next week, in their struggle for fair pay.”

The EIS said its National Executive Committee will meet tomorrow and will be considering the next steps in the campaign.

Councillor Katie Hagmann, Cosla spokesperson for resources, said: “I am pleased that we continue to be in proactive discussions with our trade union and Scottish Government partners as we endeavour to find areas for agreement.

“Strikes in education are in nobody’s interest and all parties are eager to seek a resolution that not only protects the teaching and wider local government workforce, but also our children and young people’s educational experience.

“Cosla leaders are clear that given the financial pressures being faced it remains the case that the 10% ask of the trade unions remains unaffordable and therefore we still remain a distance apart in terms of a settlement.”

THE BEDDIE ROLLER
Surendran Pattel: The US judge who once made cigarettes in India


Thu, January 12, 2023 

Surendran K Pattel has become a judge in Texas state

Last week, when Indian-origin lawyer Surendran K Pattel took the oath as a district judge in a US court, he made headlines back home because of his inspiring journey. BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi tells the story of a man who went from making hand-rolled cigarettes in India to becoming an arbiter of justice.

Mr Pattel, 51, who is from the southern Indian state of Kerala, has been appointed a judge in the 240th Judicial District Court in Fort Bend County in Texas state.

He was sworn in on 1 January, five years after he became a US citizen - his journey, Mr Pattel says, was all about "hard work, determination and a lot of struggle".


"But there were also a lot of people who supported and helped me at every stage of my life," he says, saying that the list is topped by his mother, whom he calls "a symbol of sacrifice".

Mr Pattel spent his childhood in grinding poverty. His parents were labourers who depended on meagre daily wages to feed their six children.

As a child, Mr Pattel would roll beedis - traditional cigarettes made by wrapping raw tobacco in leaves - "so that we could have three meals a day".

"My elder sister and I used to sit late into the night doing this," he says.

As a teenager, he dropped out of school after not scoring well in his exams. He had almost accepted his lot in life when his eldest sister died, leaving behind a 15 month-old daughter.

"The case was determined to be a suicide but I felt that justice had not been done in the matter. It still haunts me," he told the BBC without giving more details about the incident.

The tragedy spurred him to redefine his future and he rejoined school and studied hard. When he was in a two-year, pre-degree course before going to college, Mr Pattel often had to skip classes because he had to work too.

In his first year, he had to plead with his teachers after they asked him not to take the final exams due to low attendance.

"I didn't want to tell them that I wasn't going to class because of my financial situation because I didn't want sympathy," he says.

His teachers gave him another chance - they only learnt later from his friends that he had no choice but to work.

When the results came out, Mr Pattel surprised everyone by ranking second in his class.

He also decided that his future lay in law. "I never wanted to do anything else. I am so passionate about it," he says.

Mr Pattel was sworn in as a district judge on 1 January

Mr Pattel's financial situation continued to pose challenges but he was helped by the generosity of people he met along the way.

One of them was a Mr Uttupp, who ran a hotel in Kerala.

"I told him if he did not give me a job, I would have to discontinue my education. He hired me as part of the housekeeping staff in the hotel," Mr Pattel says.

The relationship continued until Mr Uttupp's death.

"His brother Manuel even called me after the news broke that I had become a judge," Mr Pattel says.

Mr Pattel got a degree in political science in 1992 before studying law.

Four years later, he got a job with lawyer P Appukuttan and began working in the town of Hosdurg in Kerala's Kasaragod district.

"He was so enthusiastic that I trusted him. I entrusted all kinds of civil matters to him because he was capable of doing it," Mr Appukuttan told the BBC.

Mr Pattel worked there for a decade until his wife, Subha, got a job at a hospital in India's capital Delhi.

He decided to follow her because he "never wanted to come in the way of her career".

In Delhi, he worked with a Supreme Court lawyer for a few months before his wife had to move again - this time to the US.

"Even though I wasn't happy about leaving my profession behind, I followed her. Without her, I would not have been where I am today,'' Mr Pattel says.

Mr Pattel lives in Texas with his family

The couple moved to Texas in 2007, where Mr Pattel worked in a grocery store for some time before realising that he could take the Bar exam in Texas. He then went on to get a degree in international law.

When Mr Pattel decided to run for the post of the judge with the Democratic Party, he had some unpleasant experiences - for instance, he was mocked for his Indian accent while campaigning, he says.

"But I was not hurt by it. Campaigns can be nasty sometimes. I think it doesn't matter how long you live here - what matters is how long you have served the community," he adds.

The American journey, he says, has been a rewarding one: "I became a citizen only in 2017 and now in 2022, I have won an election. I don't think this can happen in any other country."

His victory is also special for a personal reason.

While practising in Texas, Mr Pattel became very close to a senior lawyer, Glenden B Adams.

When Mr Adams died, his wife Rosalie Adams asked Mr Pattel to be a pallbearer.

On Wednesday, when he began his new role, "it was Rosalie Adams who put the robes on me at my private investiture in my courtroom".

The Webb Telescope's first confirmed exoplanet is 99 percent the diameter of Earth

LHS 475 b is just 41 light years away.


Just_Super via Getty Images

Andrew Tarantola
·Senior Editor
Wed, January 11, 2023 

Having already returned visually stunning and scientifically spectacular results from its first six months in operation, the James Webb Space Telescope has recorded another inaugural milestone: its first exoplanet discovery confirmation. It peered 41 light years into the cosmos and found a planet in the Octans constellation with a diameter 99 percent that of Earth itself — say hello to LHS 475 b.

Specifically a team of astronomers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, led by Kevin Stevenson and Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, first spotted evidence of the candidate exoplanet while digging through data generated from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). However it was Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) that confirmed the planets existence by observing two transits in front of its parent star. “There is no question that the planet is there. Webb’s pristine data validate it,” Lustig-Yaeger declared in a NASA press release.



As the space agency notes, among telescopes in operation today (both terrestrial and orbital), only the JWST possesses the resolving capabilities to accurately characterize the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. The research team is still working to determine what, if any, sort of atmosphere is sitting atop the rocky mass using by analyzing its transmission spectrum.

There is a chance that the planet will be devoid of its critical gaseous insulation but at these distances, it could simply be hiding a very small atmo close to the surface. "Counterintuitively, a 100% carbon dioxide atmosphere is so much more compact that it becomes very challenging to detect,” said Lustig-Yaeger.

They are confident that it does not possess an oppressive atmosphere similar to that of Saturn’s moon Titan, however. “There are some terrestrial-type atmospheres that we can rule out,” he said. “It can’t have a thick methane-dominated atmosphere.”

That said, the surface of the planet does appear to be around 300 Celsius, several hundred degrees warmer than here on Earth. If cloud cover is discovered in subsequent studies, it could suggest a greenhouse world climate closer to Venus. The researchers have also confirmed that LHS 475 b maintains a tidal-locked orbit with its star of just two days — far too close to attempt with Sol but, because LHS circles a red dwarf that's producing less than half of our sun's energy, can theoretically maintain an atmosphere.