Filipino workers: Oil company abandoned us in Hurricane Ida




- A view of flood damaged buildings are seen as President Joe Biden (not pictured) inspects the damage from Hurricane Ida on the Marine One helicopter during an aerial tour of communities in Laffite, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on Sept. 3, 2021. Ten Filipino men who worked for a major offshore oil industry employer claim in a federal lawsuit in Feburary 2022 that they were treated like prisoners at a company bunkhouse — and that two of them were abandoned there when Hurricane Ida struck the Louisiana Gulf Coast in 2021. 

(Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP, File)

KEVIN McGILL
Fri, January 27, 2023 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As Hurricane Ida struck the Louisiana Gulf Coast in August 2021, Renato Decena and Rosel Hernandez watched the storm punch a hole in the roof of the bunkhouse where they were sheltered — abandoned, they allege, by their offshore oil industry employer as the hurricane bore down.

“I could not think of anything to do but to pray and to pray,” Decena, who court records indicate worked for the company for about four years, told The Associated Press.

Decena and Hernandez are two of 10 Filipino workers who are suing their former employer, major offshore oil industry company Grand Isle Shipyard, alleging they were virtual prisoners at their bunkhouse and that the company abandoned Decena, Hernandez and some of their co-workers there during the storm. The 10 plaintiffs also allege they were illegally underpaid and that those among them who tested positive for COVID-19 were quarantined on vulnerable moored supply boats or other vessels, sometimes without adequate food or medicine.

Grand Isle Shipyard not only denies the claims but has struck back with a counterclaim accusing the workers — whose lawsuit invokes federal human trafficking and fair housing laws — of defamation. The judge in the case dismissed the defamation allegations in a Jan. 20 order but said the company could pursue them again once the workers' lawsuit is concluded.

The competing court filings at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans lay out starkly different views of life for Filipinos who work under federally granted visas at the Louisiana-based company.

Overseas employment of Filipino citizens has been a key part of the Philippines' economy since the government of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s, according to nonpartisan research and analysis organization the Migration Policy Institute.

The Philippines' worldwide remittances — money sent back to family and friends from Filipino workers employed abroad — totaled more than $36 billion in 2021, according to data from the World Bank.

“As part of its labor export policy, the Philippines has developed a significant government infrastructure to regulate labor migration and the recruitment industry, and to manage relations with labor-receiving countries and provide some protections for workers at destination,” Michelle Mittelstadt, spokesperson for MPI, said in an email. “That said, foreign workers can be vulnerable to abusive conditions at destination, at the mercy of employers and recruiters.”

Decena and Hernandez said the better-paying jobs in the United States help them provide for their families.

“We have dreams for our family and children,” Hernandez said in an email. “We want them to have a better future.”

They and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege they suffered abusive conditions while employed and housed by the company, and that discrimination played a role.

Aside from Decena's and Hernandez's claims that they were abandoned at the bunkhouse during Ida, they also allege poor care and cramped quarters for those among them who were quarantined on moored tugboats or supply vessels when they tested positive for COVID-19.

“Not one medicine, not one tablet, not one vitamin. Nobody gave these things to us. We were on our own,” Hernandez told the AP.

A 15-year employee of the company, Hernandez said there was little food when he arrived at the quarantine vessel.

“I drank juice and hot water with salt to cure my coughing,” he said.

The company denied such allegations in its counterclaim filed Oct. 10, 2022.

“The houseboats and vessels that workers were quarantined on have fully stocked kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms," the company filing said. "Breakfast, lunch and dinner for workers was delivered by Defendants to all such quarantine sites."

“GIS’ on-site clinic physician routinely visited those in quarantine, dispensing medicine and monitoring symptoms,” the filing said.

The lawsuit alleges that the company used threats of deportation to keep the workers from leaving the bunkhouse.

“All workers are free to come and go as often as they wish,” the company said in its counterclaim.

Early on, the argument had been over whether the workers' claims should be heard in U.S. federal court or whether the contracts the men signed meant the claims had to be settled by arbitration in the Philippines.

The workers' lawsuit says the Philippines' agency that administers arbitration won't enforce legal remedies called for in U.S. law, and that the arbitration process is corrupt.

“We want a fairer treatment,” Hernandez said in the AP interview. “We know that the system here is better.”

In a Sept. 23, 2022, ruling in New Orleans, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said the workers’ disputes over wages — they claim the company did not pay promised rates and denied them overtime for periods when they were effectively on call for offshore work — would be subject to arbitration in the Philippines. Barbier allowed the U.S. court case to proceed involving the allegations that the men were confined to the bunkhouse and treated unfairly, claims invoking U.S. human trafficking and fair housing law.

The workers' lawsuit seeks class-action status — meaning, if Barbier agrees, it would cover roughly 90 other Filipino men who worked for Grand Isle Shipyard. A victory would mean unspecified damages paid to the workers for the alleged human trafficking and fair housing allegations.

Grand Isle Shipyard is seeking damages, too, accusing the workers of making false allegations they claim were “maliciously fabricated” and could carry criminal implications that would damage the company.

In its counterclaim, Grand Isle Shipyard said it discovered that two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit — who like Hernandez and Decena were said to be among numerous workers stranded in the bunkhouse when Ida hit — were actually in the Philippines at the time of the storm. Lawyers for the workers have since filed an amended version of the lawsuit, keeping the two as plaintiffs over living conditions and wages but removing the claim that they were with Hernandez, Decena and other workers in the bunkhouse at the time of the hurricane.

Grand Isle Shipyard has not granted telephoned requests for interviews or comment.

The workers are represented by attorney Daniel Werner in Georgia and lawyers with the Tulane University Law Clinic.

___

Associated Press reporter Jim Gomez in Manila contributed to this report.

Petr Pavel, war hero elected Czech president


Jan FLEMR
Sat, January 28, 2023


Retired general Petr Pavel, who won the Czech presidential election on Saturday, is a war hero with a passion for motorcycles.

Pavel beat billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis to become the Czech Republic's fourth president since independence in 1993.

True to his military past, the 61-year-old has vowed to "restore order" in the EU and NATO member of 10.5 million people if elected.

"I can't ignore the fact that people here increasingly feel chaos, disorder and uncertainty. That the state has somehow ceased to function," Pavel said on his campaign website.

"We need to change this. We need to play by the rules, which will be valid for everyone alike. We need a general sweep," he added.


Sporting a carefully trimmed beard and white hair, Pavel rarely smiled during the campaign, but that did not deter voters.

"His indisputable advantage is that he looks very charismatic and representative, even when he's just standing and saying nothing," independent political analyst Jan Kubacek told AFP.

- Communist 'mistake' -

Born on November 1, 1961, Pavel attended both a military grammar school and a military university in the former Czechoslovakia, which was then ruled by Moscow-backed communists.

He joined the Communist Party and began a rapid rise through army ranks.

His critics fault him for having studied to become a military intelligence agent for the communist army.

"I was born into a family where party membership was considered normal," Pavel said on his website.

"I didn't have enough information and experience to assess the criminal nature of the regime. Now I know it was a mistake."

When communism fell in 1989, Pavel cast aside his party ID but went ahead with the intelligence course.

An elite paratrooper, Pavel won recognition when he helped free French troops from a Serbo-Croatian war zone in early 1993.

- 'Grandpa' -

After the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999, Pavel spent three years at the alliance's regional command in the Netherlands.

He later earned a master's degree in international relations at King's College in London before going on to work as the Czech army's chief of staff.

In 2015, he was appointed the head of the NATO Military Committee, its top military official.

With a chest full of decorations -- including the US Legion of Merit and France's Croix de Guerre for bravery -- Pavel retired from the army in 2018.

When the Covid pandemic struck, Pavel founded the "Stronger Together" initiative to help tackle various crises and assist those in need.

Pavel's wife Eva is also a soldier. He has two sons from a previous marriage, plus a stepdaughter, and describes himself as a "grandpa enjoying his grandchildren".

Pavel claims to enjoy travel, skiing, photography and reading during his spare time, but his true passion is motorcycling.

Having switched from a Suzuki off-road bike, he now has a dual-sport BMW.

"For 33 years, I have served the democratic and pro-western drive of our country," Pavel said on his website.

"I believe my deeds show clearly the values I stand for and that I am willing to fight hard to preserve them."

Retired Czech army general Pavel wins presidential election







Czech Republic Presidential ElectionCzech Republic's President elect Petr Pavel with his wife Eva greets his supporters after announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential runoff in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

KAREL JANICEK
Sat, January 28, 2023 

PRAGUE (AP) — Petr Pavel, a retired army general, defeated populist billionaire Andrej Babis in a runoff vote Saturday to become the new Czech president.

Pavel, 61, will succeed controversy-courting Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post. With the ballots from 99.5% of polling stations counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Pavel had 58.2% of the vote compared with 42.8% for Babis.

“We can have different views of a number of issues, but that doesn’t mean we’re enemies,” Pavel said in a message to voters who cast ballots for Babis after what was considered a nasty presidential campaign period. “We have to learn how to communicate with each other.”

Babis conceded defeat and congratulated Pavel on his victory. He called on his supporters “to accept that I’ve lost and accept we have a new president.”

Pavel, who ran as an independent, is a former chairman of NATO’s military committee, the alliance’s highest military body. He fully endorsed the Czech Republic's military and humanitarian support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion and stresses the importance of the country's membership in the European Union and NATO.

The president picks the prime minister after a general election, one of the office’s key responsibilities, and appoints members of the central bank. The office-holder also selects Constitutional Court judges with the approval of Parliament’s upper house.

Otherwise, the president has little executive power since Czechia is run by a government chosen and led by the prime minister.

Losing the race to Pavel was another major defeat for Babis 68, a former prime minister. His centrist ANO (YES) movement ended up in opposition after losing the 2021 general election.

Zeman, the outgoing president, had backed Babis, one of country’s richest people. The two men share euroskeptic views and the habit of using anti-migrant rhetoric.

While Babis has been a divisive figure, he maintained his popular support with older voters. He accused Pavel, during a campaign marred by false accusations, of having been a KGB-trained communist spy. He provided no evidence for the claim, and went on to compare his opponent to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Ukraine war was a core campaign issue. Babis presented himself as a peacemaker and labeled Pavel a warmonger due to his military past.

In his most controversial statement, Babis said he wouldn’t send troops to Poland or the Baltics if the NATO allies were attacked. He later backtracked.

Zeman, who took office in March 2013, was the country's first president elected by popular vote. His second and final five-year term expires in March. Lawmakers elected the previous two presidents, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus.

Before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Zeman divided the nation with his pro-Russia stance and support for closer ties with China.

What is 'The 1619 Project' and why has Gov. DeSantis banned it from Florida schools?

C. A. Bridges, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Sat, January 28, 2023 

Students at Eastern Senior High School in Washington reflected on the 1619 Project.

"The 1619 Project," a six-part documentary series based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning essay and podcast series developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, is now streaming on Hulu.

The project, a series of essays, poems and multimedia by Hannah-Jones, other New York Times writers and historians first published in The New York Times Magazine in 2019, examined the impact of slavery on American life, economics and culture through the current day.

The cover of "The 1619 Project"

Arguments over the importance, relevance and accuracy of the project began immediately, and it became a lightning rod in the battle of how race should be taught in schools. Political leaders publicly praised or denounced it. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called it "a lie." Former president Donald Trump condemned "The 1619 Project" as "toxic propaganda" and "ideological poison" that "will destroy our country," and he called for an alternative lesson plan in response. The Biden Administration cited the project in a request for a grant to support "antiracist" education. GOP leaders in multiple states filed bills to cut funding to K-12 schools and colleges that provided lessons derived from the project.

Florida went further in 2021 by specifically banning "prohibited material from The 1619 Project" in any educational curriculum. Later that year when Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his proposal to restrict diversity training and race discussions in Florida businesses and schools in what he called the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," he claimed the new bill built on the 1619 Project ban.

So what is it?

Watch it yourself:How to watch ‘The 1619 Project’ on Hulu this month

What is 'The 1619 Project'?

Nikole Hannah-Jones is shown in the newsroom of The New York Times in New York in 2017.

In 2019, The New York Times Magazine published a series called "The 1619 Project." It included 10 essays, a photo essay, fiction pieces and poems, artwork, images and audio files by Nikole Hannah-Jones and several historians and thought leaders to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first known enslaved Africans in the British colonies that became the United States, a point often considered as the beginning of American slavery. Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for her introductory essay in the project, "America Wasn't a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One."

More material was added in later editions and a school curriculum was developed with the Pulitzer Center, which said that by February of 2021, more than 4,000 educators from all 50 states reported using it.

The project was compiled into a best-selling anthology book and is now a six-part documentary on Hulu hosted by Hannah-Jones and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. The series expands on many of the themes that appeared in the podcast. Each episode of the six-part series will focus on a theme: “Democracy,” “Race,” “Music,” “Capitalism,” “Fear” and “Justice.” The first two episodes of the series premiered on Hulu Thursday, Jan. 26, and two additional episodes will be released each week on Thursdays.
What are the main points of 'The 1619 Project'?

Ultimately, the project as a whole makes the case that much of the inequality still present in American society today can be traced, directly or indirectly, to the institution of slavery and the people who believed in and profited from it.

"The 1619 Project" seeks to look at American history through the lens of slavery and reframe it by challenging the traditionally taught idea that American history began with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or even with the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620.

"No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed," it says at the very beginning of the project. "On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is finally time to tell our story truthfully."

The essays touched on such topics as American Capitalism and its source in slavery, racial beliefs that still persist in medicine, why race is the reason the U.S. doesn't have universal health care, the reasons behind the country's racial wealth gap and its prison system, and more. Most economic, educational and political institutions in the U.S. are described as having been formed or were strongly based on the benefits of slavery or the need to compromise with slave states even after slavery was formally abolished, as spelled out in essays such as "What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery" and "How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam." The project and later additions also seek to supply what the writers consider is the missing Black history that is often omitted, ignored or outright whitewashed in traditional American history.

"Without the idealistic, strenuous and patriotic efforts of black Americans, our democracy today would most likely look very different — it might not be a democracy at all," Hannah-Jones wrote.

1619:How an accidental encounter brought slavery to the United States

US history is complex:Scholars say this is the right way to teach about slavery, racism.

More:Parents want kids to learn about ongoing effects of slavery – but not critical race theory. They're the same thing.
What are the complaints about 'The 1619 Project'?

The complaints range from minor academic quibbles to accusations of an attack on America itself.

One of the most hotly contested claims was made by Hannah-Jones in her introduction when she wrote that "one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery," saying that by 1776 Britain had become "deeply conflicted" over slavery and that "it is not incidental that 10 of this nation’s first 12 presidents were enslavers."

A letter, signed by five historians and published in New York Times Magazine in December 2019, claimed the project had "significant factual errors" and accused the creators of putting ideology before historical understanding. The Times defended the project and pointed to the positive feedback from educators, academics and historians, but did eventually soften some of the claims to say "some of" the colonists fought to preserve slavery, but not all of them. Hannah-Jones later admitted on Twitter that she may have worded it too strongly.

Others argue that the project misrepresents U.S. history and demeans the Founding Fathers, undermining the concept of American exceptionalism. Some historians, including Dr. Susan Parker of Flagler College in St. Augustine, pointed out that African slavery existed for more than half a century before 1619 (although that was in then-Spanish Florida and not the British colonies).

The larger issue is the concept presented in the project that America is structurally racist and that white people are inherently privileged, something that critics call politicized activist liberal indoctrination or "leftist political propaganda." "The 1619 Project" came along as Black Lives Matter rallies brought racial injustice to a national discussion and "critical race theory" or CRT — originally a once-obscure legal theory on how systematic racism permeates American life today — was turned into a catch-all term for any teaching on race that may be considered by detractors as divisive or revisionist.

More:Schools can teach full US history under critical race theory bans, experts say. Here's how

"Families did not ask for this divisive nonsense. Voters did not vote for it," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and almost 40 other Senate Republicans wrote in a letter to the Biden administration. "Americans never decided our children should be taught that our country is inherently evil."

Critics also have pointed to teachers they say have used CRT-based lessons to humiliate students or even flunk white children.

“I think that issue that we all are concerned about — racial discrimination — it was our original sin. We’ve been working for 200-and-some-odd years to get past it,” McConnell said later. “We’re still working on it, and I just simply don’t think that’s part of the core underpinning of what American civic education ought to be about.”

Some historians say the bills to block CRT and "The 1619 Project" are part of a larger effort by Republicans to draw America's culture wars into classrooms and glorify a more white and patriarchal view of American history that downplays the ugly legacy of slavery and the contributions of Black people, Native Americans, women and others to the nation’s founding.

Teaching kids to hate America? Republicans want ‘critical race theory’ out of schools

More:Republican state lawmakers want to punish schools that teach the 1619 Project

Mitch McConnell: 1619, American slavery starting point, not an important point in history
What did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis say about 'The 1619 Project'?

Gov. DeSantis has made the battle against what he calls woke indoctrination one of the cornerstones of his policies.

In 2021 Florida's Board of Education banned critical race theory, mentioning "The 1619 Project" by name.

DeSantis built on that with his "Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act" or "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," which, among other things, outlaws the teaching of white privilege (the notion that white people have had advantages over racial minorities simply because of the color of their skin) and any teaching that could make students feel "guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex." The law specifically banned the "1619 Project" in classrooms and placed critical race theory in the same category as Holocaust denial, a legislative analysis shows. The bill dubs such teachings as "indoctrination" and specifies that teachers accused of violating it may be sued by anyone.

Fighting 'indoctrination':Gov. DeSantis takes on how racial history is taught in Florida schools

What does it mean to be 'woke'?And why does Florida Governor Ron DeSantis want to stop it?

More:Gov. Ron DeSantis' Stop WOKE Act will have 'chilling effect,' say teachers and Democrats

“We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other,” he said in his announcement. “We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards.”

The new guidelines seek to change how teachers approach U.S. history, civics and government lessons with an added emphasis on patriotism and the U.S. Constitution.

Last September, during a press conference on tax relief, he again called out the project by name.

"We are required to teach slavery, Post-Reconstruction and segregation, civil rights, those are core parts of American history that should be taught," he said during a press conference on tax relief, "but it should also be taught accurately. For example, the 1619 Project is a CRT version of history, it's supported by The New York Times. They want to teach that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery. And that's false."

However, his message may have been undermined by his further declaration that it was solely the "American revolution that caused people to question slavery."

“No one had questioned it [slavery] before we decided as Americans that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights and that we are all created equal,” DeSantis said.

'Stop the Black attack': Civil rights attorney threatens to sue over African American Studies

Florida education officials: African American Studies AP course 'lacks educational value'

Several prominent historians denounced this as false since they said slavery was questioned and resisted by a large number of people across the world and in America — especially by the enslaved people themselves — well before the Revolution.

Contributors: Ali Wong, USA TODAY; Melody Mercado, Des Moines Register; Mark Harper, The Daytona Beach News-Journal

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 'The 1619 Project,' now on Hulu: Why are states banning it in schools?

Firefighters Still Aren't Sure How to Quickly Defeat EV Fires

Erin Marquis
Fri, January 27, 2023 

Screenshot: News 4 (WOAI)

Tens of thousands of gallons: That’s how much water it takes to extinguish a single electric vehicle fire. As EVs becomes more prevalent on our roads — possibly reaching 50 percent of all new car sales by 2030 — firefighters are still struggling to get proper training on how to quickly and effectively put out these incredibly intense blazes.

Vox did a deep dive into EV fires. The publication focused on Teslas, but that’s not really fair as all EVs have fire problems. It took General Motors several tries to remedy a fire problem with the Chevy Bolt, at one point instructing owners not to park their vehicles inside garages or near structures and to only charge their vehicles a certain amount. And these are cars that hadn’t even crashed. They’d just go up randomly.

When an EV goes up, it really goes, thanks to all the power stored in the battery. From Vox:

The first moments of an EV fire might appear relatively calm, with only smoke emanating from underneath the vehicle. But as thermal runaway takes hold, bright orange flames can quickly engulf an entire car. And because EV batteries are packed with an incredible amount of stored energy, one of these fires can get as hot as nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Even when the fire appears to be over, latent heat may still be spreading within the cells of the battery, creating the risk that the vehicle could ignite several days later. One firefighter compared the challenge to a trick birthday candle that reignites after blowing it out.

Because EV fires are different, EV firefighting presents new problems. Firefighters often try to suppress car fires by, essentially, suffocating them. They might use foam extinguishers filled with substances like carbon dioxide that can draw away oxygen, or use a fire blanket that’s designed to smother flames. But because EV fires aren’t fueled by oxygen from the air, this approach doesn’t work. Instead, firefighters have to use lots and lots of water to cool down the battery. This is particularly complex when EV fires occur far from a hydrant, or if a local fire department only has a limited number of engines. Saltwater, which is extremely efficient at conducting electricity, can make the situation even worse.

Even when EV fires are eventually put out, they can reignite. Last year, a Tesla Model S caught fire at a junk yard weeks after being involved in a crash, Autoblog reports. Firefighters eventually pushed the whole thing into a water-filled pit to douse the flames.

While Vox’s headline may have unfairly targeted Tesla, some of the automaker’s fire issues are self-inflicted via “cool” design, rather than a matter of physics. The electric doorhandles on Teslas, for instance, are the subject of a lawsuit after a driver trapped in his burning Model S after a crash died. And in May of last year, a Tesla driver had to kick out his window in order to escape his burning vehicle after the car died, displayed an error message and began smoking, Reuters reports.

It doesn’t help that Tesla, which sell more EVs than any other car company in the U.S., isn’t exactly forthcoming in training materials and information for firefighters. From Vox:

In the long, wide-ranging message, McConnell also explained what assistance Tesla could and could not provide. He offered online training sessions but could not arrange in-person training because, McConnell explained, he had “just too many requests.” A diagram for the Model X implied there was magnesium in a part of the car that did not, in fact, contain magnesium. There was no extrication video guide for the company’s Model Y car (extrication is the firefighter term for removing someone from a totaled vehicle). It would be difficult to get a training vehicle for the Austin firefighters to practice with, McConnell added, since Tesla is a “build to order manufacturer.” Most of Tesla’s scrap vehicles are recycled at the company’s Fremont plant, he said, though a car could become available if one of Tesla’s engineering or fleet vehicles crashed.

McConnell’s long email reflects the current approach to fighting EV fires and the fact that fire departments across the country are still learning best practices. Even now, there isn’t consensus on the best approach. Some firefighters have considered using cranes to lift flaming EVs into giant tanks of water, although some automakers discourage submerging entire vehicles. Rosenbauer, a major fire engine and firefighting equipment manufacturer, has designed a new nozzle that pierces through the battery casing and squirts water directly onto the damaged cells, despite some official automaker guides that say firefighters shouldn’t try rupturing the battery. Another factor that needs to be considered, added Alfie Green, the chief of training at the Detroit Fire Department, is that there are new car models released every year, and there is particular guidance on how to disconnect different cars.

I, for one, really enjoy the mental image of firefighters dunking a burning car being craned into a tank of water. It has a sort of carnival game ring to it.

Read the whole report right here.

Jalopnik

Brazil police raid Bolsonaro nephew's home in uprising probe


Protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, storm the the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. Brazil’s federal police searched the home of a nephew of Bolsonaro on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, in connection with the Jan. 8 storming of government buildings in the capital by far-right protesters.

 (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File) 

CARLA BRIDI
Fri, January 27, 2023

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s federal police searched the home of a nephew of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday in connection with the Jan. 8 storming of government buildings in the capital by far-right protesters.

Police said Leonardo Rodrigues de Jesus, known by Bolsonaro supporters as Leo Índio, was one of the targets of a series of raids that led to 11 arrests in different states. It was the first time a member of Bolsonaro's family has been included in the investigations of the uprising in Brasilia, which underlined the political polarization in Brazil.

Police said those under investigation could be tried for crimes against democracy and criminal association.

De Jesus posted his picture near the entrance of the Congress building on social media on the day of the uprising. Later, Bolsonaro’s nephew accused leftists of infiltrating the protest to attack government buildings. Police investigations have found no evidence to back up this claim.

De Jesus has a close relationship to one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Carlos Bolsonaro, a city council member in Rio de Janeiro. The two often appeared together at the presidential palace in Brasilia when the far-right president was in office. Their visits were kept secret by the Bolsonaro administration following opposition criticism.

Carlos Bolsonaro is the head of the former president’s digital operations and a key member of Bolsonaro’s failed reelection bid.

De Jesus was one of Carlos Bolsonaro’s aides in Rio and moved to Brasilia in 2019. He joined a senator’s Cabinet team and later Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party group as an adviser at the Senate. He was later fired after the local media revealed he was a “phantom employee” — someone who did not show up for work but still was paid for the post.

In 2022, he ran as a Federal District councilor but didn’t gather enough votes.

De Jesus has been investigated by Rio de Janeiro’s judicial authorities since 2021, when it was alleged he received money transfers from the Cabinet of one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Flavio, when he was on the city council. Public money was also allegedly used to pay De Jesus’ rent.

The Supreme Court had already requested De Jesus’ preventative arrest in connection with the Jan. 8 attacks, but police said he had not been detained yet. De Jesus can appeal that order, but he declared a lack of funds to pay the costs of his attorneys.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva guaranteed at a meeting with state governors that what happened on Jan. 8 won't occur again, calling it a coup attempt

U.S. lawmakers ask Kerry to urge UAE to replace oil boss as COP28 president


FILE PHOTO: United Arab Emirates' Industry Minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber speaks during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi

Fri, January 27, 2023
By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Over two dozen U.S. representatives on Friday called on top U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to urge the United Arab Emirates to withdraw its appointment of the head of its state oil company as president of the COP28 climate summit it will host this year.

The 27 Democratic members of Congress, led by California Congressman Jared Huffman, sent a letter to Kerry calling on him to persuade the future U.N. climate summit host to withdraw the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, who is charged with shepherding the next round of climate negotiations.

The lawmakers said the appointment jeopardizes the climate talks, which they say are already negatively influenced by the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists.

"It risks undermining the very essence of what is trying to be accomplished," they wrote to Kerry.

"Furthermore, as some of us have urged future COPs should require any participating company to submit an audited corporate political influencing statement that discloses climate-related lobbying, campaign contributions, and funding of trade associations and organizations active on energy and climate," they added.

On Jan. 12, Kerry congratulated the UAE on the selection of Jaber.

In an interview with Reuters last month, Kerry said having an oil state host the COP is a positive move because "it's so important that you have an oil and gas producing nation step up and say we understand the challenge of the climate crisis.”

Al-Jaber, also UAE's minister of industry and technology and its climate envoy, will help shape the conference's agenda and intergovernmental negotiations to build consensus, his office said in a statement.

Campaigners and some delegates criticized COP27, saying fossil fuel producers had watered down emission reduction ambitions and benefited from sympathetic treatment from Egypt, a natural gas exporter and frequent recipient of Gulf funds.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by David Gregorio)

US, Netherlands and Japan reportedly agree to limit China's access to chipmaking equipment

The deal would put export controls on lithography systems made by ASML and Nikon.


Ann Wang / reuters

Igor Bonifacic
·Weekend Editor
Sat, January 28, 2023 

The Biden administration has reportedly reached an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking machinery. According to Bloomberg, officials from the two countries agreed on Friday to adopt some of the same export controls the US has used over the last year to prevent companies like NVIDIA from selling their latest technologies in China. The agreement would reportedly see export controls imposed on companies that produce lithography systems, including ASML and Nikon.

Bloomberg reports the US, Netherlands and Japan don’t plan to announce the agreement publicly. Moreover, implementation could take “months” while the countries work to hammer out the legal details. “Talks are ongoing, for a long time already, but we don’t communicate about this. And if something would come out of this, it is questionable if this will be made very visible,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday, responding to a question about the negotiations.

According to Bloomberg, the agreement will cover “at least” some of ASML’s immersion lithography machines. As of last year, ASML was the only company in the world producing the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines chipmakers need to make the 5nm and 3nm semiconductors that power the latest smartphones and computers. Cutting off China from ASML’s products is an effort by the Biden administration to freeze the country’s domestic chip industry. Last summer, Chinese state media reported that SMIC, China’s leading semiconductor manufacturer, had begun volume production of 14nm chips and had successfully started making 7nm silicon without access to foreign chip-making equipment. China has said SMIC is working on making 5nm semiconductors, but it’s unclear how the company will do that without access to EUV machines.

Europe’s wind industry flags further weakness in 2023 despite energy demand

Profits crunched as materials costs surge and new projects are delayed by EU bureaucracy

Vestas said it expected inflation to continue to push up prices across its supply chain and warned that fewer wind power installations this year would hit sales and profitability © Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg

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Th European wind industry has warned of continued difficulties in 2023 as high materials costs and slow approvals for new wind power projects drag back profitability, despite rising demand for renewable energy.

The latest poor outlook came from Danish wind turbine maker Vestas, which told investors on Friday that it would suffer a weaker year as the slow EU planning system and supply chain inflation depressed profits.

Siemens Gamesa chair Christian Bruch also said last week that the industry was “facing serious financial challenges,” while wind farm developer Orsted announced a $365mn impairment on a major US offshore project thanks to “unprecedented cost inflation”.

General Electric, one of the world’s leading wind turbine suppliers, reported that revenues in its renewable energy arm fell almost a fifth in the year to December, in part because of lower turbine orders.

The effects of the Russian war on Ukraine drove up prices for energy and important raw materials such as steel last year, creating a perfect storm for the European wind sector.

Despite escalating demand from governments and customers for renewable energy as a result of the energy crisis, the slow EU and UK approval processes have created a backlog of projects and delayed new turbine orders.

In its outlook for 2023, Vestas said it expected inflation to continue pushing up prices across its supply chain and warned that the “reduced” wind power installations this year would hit sales and profitability. It reported revenue of €14.5bn for 2022, at the bottom end of guidance, in preliminary results.

Revenues this year could be lower still and, even though turbine prices were rising, Vestas would be “challenged on profitability in 2023”, it said.

Reduced installations were “caused by slow permitting processes in Europe” and “dampened activity levels” in the US, where the industry was ramping up “ahead of a busy 2024”, the company added.

The US pick-up next year would be driven by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which has earmarked $369bn for clean energy and climate-related projects, said Vestas.

But the combined effects of supply chain crunches, inflation, growing competition from China and the lengthy bureaucratic process of getting new project approvals drove the leading turbine makers to cut jobs last year.

Renewable energy

Slow wind farm approvals risk green goals, say renewable energy groups

Siemens Gamesa has delisted its shares and slimmed down its board to focus on its financial turnround after suffering a €760mn net loss in its preliminary results for the first quarter of 2023.

The leading European offshore wind manufacturers “are under enormous pressure on the cost side and on the price side”, said Alessandro Boschi, head of the European Investment Bank’s renewable energy division, adding that he expected to see “further consolidation” in the sector.

Boschi said European manufacturers had to compete with Chinese counterparts “not on a cost basis but on a quality and technology basis”, such as the size and performance of turbines.

The bank “saw quite an increase in our lending to the sector in 2022”, which included financing for research and development to big manufacturers such as Vestas, he added.

However, Elena Pravettoni, clean power lead at the Energy Transitions Commission think-tank, said some of the challenges facing the sector were “on their way to a resolution”. Shipping bottlenecks were easing and fuel costs and steel prices were falling, she said.

But questions remained about whether the European manufacturers could take full advantage of opportunities in the US, said Siemens Gamesa.

The eligibility criteria for wind sector incentives in the IRA were uncertain, and “a growing gap between qualified workers and available positions in the domestic renewable energy industry” remained a challenge, it noted.

Analysis-Why Biden pushes an assault weapons ban despite the political odds






Fri, January 27, 2023
By Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Flags are lowered, sorrowful statements are issued, pleas to lawmakers are made, again.

In the wake of two mass shootings in California this week, President Joe Biden has followed a heartfelt and familiar script of outrage and grief over gun violence in America, coupled with a renewed call for Congress to pass legislation banning assault-style weapons.

Such a ban has little chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives or the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, political experts say.

But Biden's stubborn strategy continues: make a ban the focus of public discourse whenever a mass shooting occurs and put pressure on lawmakers who oppose one. The White House hopes to build on already strong public support for stricter gun safety laws overall, and ultimately try to pressure Republicans in Congress into changing their thinking.

Janice Iwama, assistant professor at American University's Department of Justice, Law and Criminology, said that even if Biden fails to win a national ban, bringing attention to the issue could prompt some state legislatures to act.

"And it can happen a lot faster at the state level," Iwama said.

This week, after 18 people were killed over two days in California, the president asked lawmakers to send a bill to his desk as quickly as possible.

"It's really needed badly," he told Democratic leaders at a meeting on Tuesday. "We're going to ban assault weapons again," he said on Thursday at a Lunar New Year reception at the White House, to applause.

Republican opposition has not changed.

"There's not going to be any further legislative action there. We pretty much exhausted the possibilities a few months ago," Senator John Cornyn told Reuters.

The White House says Biden will not give up.

“The president’s strategy has been to make an assault weapons ban a winning issue so we can build a pro-gun safety Congress, and we’re making progress on that,” a second White House official said.

Biden's strategy may have longer-term political benefits going into the 2024 presidential election.

"I do suspect part of Biden's re-election plans over the next year is to try to contrast himself as a moderate, centrist, pragmatic figure versus the extremes," said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire.

SIMPLE MATH, NOT ENOUGH SUPPORT

A decade after 20 first-graders and six adults were killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, the U.S. federal government has put few limits on weapons like the high-capacity AR-15 used in the attack, or on the estimated 400 million guns in the country. Over 150 rounds were fired in just five minutes at the school, investigators said.

The recent shootings in California, which killed 18 people, show how even the strictest state laws can be ineffective thanks to a patchwork of federal regulation.

Biden has railed against assault-style weapons for years and repeatedly throughout his presidency. He was instrumental in getting a decade-long ban passed in 1994.

As vice president, he spearheaded a set of gun control proposals for Barack Obama after Sandy Hook that included a recommendation for a new assault weapons ban. None passed Congress, opposed by Republicans and the National Rifle Association lobby.

Last year, however, Biden signed into law the first major federal gun reform in three decades. It cracks down on overall gun sales to perpetrators of domestic violence and expands some background checks to juveniles.

These and even stricter measures have strong public support.

A June Quinnipiac poll showed nearly three out of four Americans support raising the age at which a person can buy a gun to 21, and 92 percent supported background checks for all gun buyers.

However the Quinnipiac and other polls show that just about half of Americans support an assault weapons ban.

To pass one, the president would need 60 votes in the Senate - nine Republicans and all 51 Democrats and independents - and a simple majority of 218 votes in the House of Representatives, which has 222 Republicans and a Republican speaker, who would have to consent to bringing a bill to the floor for a vote.

The June law won support from 14 Republicans in the House and 15 in the Senate, after mass shootings in Texas and New York killed more than 30 people, including 19 children at an elementary school.

The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, and that issue is a hot button one for many Republicans, and backed by millions in donations from gun rights groups and manufacturers.

"Violent crime is on the rise and the people are anxious for solutions. But instead of setting an obvious course - like actually punishing the offenders or addressing our woefully inadequate mental health system - the President is attempting to resurrect an initiative that had zero effect on violent crime," said NRA spokesperson Lars Dalseide.

The White House points to statistics, including from University of Massachusetts researcher Louis Klarevas, that show gun massacres sank 37 percent and gun massacre deaths dropped 43 percent during the 10-year period of the assault rifle ban, compared to the previous decade.

Even though an all-out assault weapons ban seems unlikely, a very thin Republican majority in the House means that something more modest, such as raising the age to 21 to buy assault weapons, could be possible, the University of New Hampshire's Scala said.

Advocates say the White House has other options it can pursue to reduce gun violence even if Congress does nothing for two years, from executive action to budgeting to enforcement of existing laws.

Biden's team says it is cognizant of the political odds.

“Our job is to keep trying. The president is going to keep using the bully pulpit, keep pursuing executive action, keep building on the legislation he got done last summer," the second White House official said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan; Editing by Heather Timmons and Nick Zieminski)

Russia rules out talks with Japan on fishing near disputed islands

 No annual Russia-Japan talks on fishing near disputed islands - Moscow


Sat, January 28, 2023

(Reuters) -Russia said on Sunday it will not hold annual talks with Japan on renewing a pact that allows Japanese fishermen to operate near disputed islands, saying Japan has taken anti-Russian measures.

The islands, off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, are known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories and have been at the core of decades of tension between the neighbours.

"In the context of the anti-Russian measures taken by the Japanese government ... the Russian side informed Tokyo that it could not agree on the holding of intergovernmental consultations on the implementation of this agreement," the RIA state news agency reported, citing Russia's foreign ministry.

Japan, a major U.S. ally, imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian individuals and organisations soon after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year.

On Friday, it tightened sanctions on Russia in response to Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Russia in June suspended the 1998 agreement that allowed Japanese boats to fish near the islands and Japan's chief cabinet secretary on Monday told a news conference that Japan would demand that Russia engages in the annual talks so this year's fishing operations could begin.

But the Russian ministry said there would be no improvement in ties unless Japan showed "respect".

"To return to a normal dialogue, the Japanese neighbours should show elementary respect for our country, a desire to improve bilateral relations," the ministry said, according to the RIA news agency.

Reuters could not reach Japanese foreign ministry officials for comment outside regular business hours.

Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of their standoff over the islands, seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the war.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Editing by Robert Birsel)