James Carville Attacks GOP, Marjorie Taylor Greene As 'White Trash'


Lee Moran
Thu, February 9, 2023

Democratic political consultant James Carville on Wednesday described Republican lawmakers who heckled President Joe Biden during his State of the Union speech as “white trash.”

“I tell people I have the equivalent of a PhD in white trashology, and we saw real white trash on display,” Carville told MSNBC anchor Ari Melber.

Carville singled out far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), saying she “dresses like white trash” and should take fashion advice from serial liar Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), in a video shared by Mediaite.

“The level of white trashdom in the Republican Party is staggering,” Carville added. “I mean, for somebody that has observed it for a long time like I have, I’ve never seen it manifest itself on a level that it’s manifesting itself.”

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Carville slammed the GOP for fielding “very low-quality candidates” and suggested the reason:

“They have a lot of stupid people that vote in their primaries. They really do. I’m not really supposed to say that, but it’s obvious fact. And you know, when stupid people vote, you know who they nominate? Other stupid people.”

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERIKA

Tennessee House speaker mulls rejecting US education money


House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, presides over the House on the first day of the 2020 legislative session, Jan. 14, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. For months, Tennessee's Republican leaders have largely maintained that the state's abortion ban — known as one of the strictest in the U.S. — allows doctors to perform the procedure, should they need to save the pregnant person's life, even though the statute doesn't explicitly say so. Sexton is the lone, top Republican leader to concede that the ban could be clarified and improved.

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) 

KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE
Wed, February 8, 2023

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One of Tennessee's most influential Republican lawmakers says the state should stop accepting the nearly $1.8 billion of federal K-12 education dollars that help provide support for low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton told The Associated Press that he has introduced a bill to explore the idea during this year’s legislative session and has begun discussions with Gov. Bill Lee and other key GOP lawmakers.

“Basically, we'll be able to educate the kids how Tennessee sees fit,” Sexton said, pointing that rejecting the money would mean that Tennessee would no longer have “federal government interference."

To date, no state has successfully rejected federal education funds even as state and local officials have long grumbled about some of the requirements and testing that at times come attached to the money. The idea has also come up elsewhere in recent months among GOP officials, including in Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Many Republican politicians and candidates at the federal level have also made a habit of calling for the outright elimination of the U.S. Department of Education.

According to Sexton, Tennessee is currently in the financial position to use state tax dollars to replace federal education funds. He pointed to the $3.2 billion in new spending outlined in Gov. Lee’s recent budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year as proof that the state could easily cover the federal government’s portion.

Federal dollars make up a small slice of Tennessee's K-12 education funding, which had an almost $8.3 billion budget as of fiscal year 2023. Yet the federal money is seen as a key tool to supporting schools in low-income areas and special education.

Sexton says he has been mulling the proposal for a while, but this week, he publicly touted the idea in front of a packed room full of lawmakers, lobbyists and other leaders at the Tennessee Farm Bureau luncheon on Tuesday.

“We as a state can lead the nation once again in telling the federal government that they can keep their money and we'll just do things the Tennessee way,” Sexton said at the event. “And that should start, first and foremost, with the Department of Education.”

Spokespersons for both Gov. Lee and Sen. Randy McNally appeared open to entertaining Sexton's proposal.

“Although we haven’t seen the details of the legislation yet, the governor is always interested in working with the speaker to ensure Tennessee students have the best access to a high-quality education," said Lee's spokesperson, Jade Byers.

McNally said he was open to the proposal, saying that “federal mandates in the area of education can be overly burdensome.”

“McNally thinks a discussion about forgoing this money, a relatively small part of overall education funding, in order to maintain more control over how we educate our Tennessee students is a constructive conversation to have,” spokesperson Adam Kleinheider said.

Democratic Rep. Bo Mitchell said he had several concerns about forgoing federal education funding, particularly knowing that the money currently goes to support students with disabilities and low-income students.

“I'm concerned about their rights and Tennessee being able to provide those services and uphold their rights,” Mitchell said.

Advocacy groups also raised alarm, with the Tennessee Disability Coalition saying they were “very disappointed” with Sexton's proposal.

“These funds represent the best, strongest bootstraps these students have for successfully living and working in our communities,” spokesperson Tom Jedlowski said.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Education Association's President Tanya Coats said Tennessee needs “every dollar we can invest” even if it comes with “federal strings.”

In Republican-dominant Tennessee, GOP lawmakers have increasingly become more skeptical and combative over what is taught inside public classrooms — particularly over race and gender issues — and the policies surrounding what services schools offer to students.

To push back against these attacks, advocates have generally leveraged various federal funds the state receives as grounds to block or challenge various school-related bans. This has resulted in state and federal education officials often being at odds with each other.

For example, last September, the U.S. Department of Education reprimanded Tennessee for how it was carrying out statewide testing, saying its problems “impact the state’s ability to provide clear and transparent information to the public about school performance, but also result in the state using information that is not comparable across schools.”

Tennessee was among the states to sue President Joe Biden ’s administration over a U.S. Department of Agriculture school meal program that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The lawsuit came after the USDA announced in May that it would include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as a violation of Title IX, the sweeping 1972 law that guarantees equity between the sexes in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

And in 2021, the federal department opened investigations into Tennessee and four other Republican-led states that have banned or limited mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions.

Yet it’s unclear whether Tennessee would have fewer conflicts with the federal government if the state chose to forgo the education funding. While the U.S. Constitution says public education is a state responsibility, states are still required to follow federal laws.

Separately, in January, Tennessee sparked national attention when state’s Department of Health announced it was walking away from nearly $9 million in federal funding designed to prevent and treat HIV.

In a letter sent to providers, the state announced that it believes “it is in the best interest of Tennesseans for the state to assume direct financial and managerial responsibility for these services.”

MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN

Mississippi GOP passes ‘apartheid’ bill to create unelected courts system in majority-Black capital of Jackson



Josh Marcus
Wed, February 8, 2023 

Mississippi’s Republican-controlled House voted on Tuesday to create a separate court system composed of unelected leaders and an expanded police force in the capital of Jackson.

The proposal, HB 1020, has been put forth by its GOP backers as a measure to increase public safety and reduce backlogs in the courts, but local leaders have argued the measure is a power grab from the state’s largely conservative, white legislature against the majority Black population of Jackson.

“Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this … where we say solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people,” Rep Ed Blackmon, a Democrat, said at the legislature on Tuesday.

He added that the measure, which would allow state officials to appoint judges and prosecutors instead of the usual local process of electing them, wouldn’t do anything to reduce crime.

"I notice that this bill does not address part of the problem, which is lack of funding at that crime lab. You’re blaming Jackson because they can’t process their cases fast enough because the crime lab is not operating at capacity because we won’t give them the money," he added.

Last week, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, said HB 1020 "reminds me of apartheid."

The Jackson City Council, including the sole Republican present, Ashby Foote, voted on Saturday for a resolution opposing the bill, according to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.

Rep Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, 175 miles outside of Jackson, defended the bill on Tuesday, saying it would make the capital safer.

"I don’t know what you’ve heard, I’ll say that, but this bill is designed to help make our capital city of Mississippi a safer city,” he said. “This bill is designed to assist the court system of Hinds County, not to hinder it. It is designed to add to our judicial resources in Hinds County, not to take away. To help, not to hurt.”

The capital has indeed struggled with public safety.

According to a 2022 report from the state auditor, Mississippi has had the highest homicide rate of any state in the country since 2018, with more homicides per capita in Jackson than any other major metropolitan area in the country in 2021.

The state, like numerous other cities, has also struggled with what community residents argue is excessive police force.

Last month, family members of Jaylen Lewis, who was killed by police last fall during a traffic stop, called for a federal investigation into the Capitol Police, who would get millions in new funding under HB 1020.

Few details have been released about the shooting, but the officers involved are on administrative leave and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is probing the case

As WLBT reports, the Capitol Police have fired on civilians four times in the last five months, more than any other Mississippi law enforcement agency in the last year.

‘Only in MS’: Lawmakers vote to create white-appointed court system for Blackest city in US


Bobby Harrison and Adam Ganucheau
Wed, February 8, 2023 

A white supermajority of the Mississippi House voted after an intense, four-plus hour debate to create a separate court system and an expanded police force within the city of Jackson — the Blackest city in America — that would be appointed completely by white state officials.

If House Bill 1020 becomes law later this session, the white chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court would appoint two judges to oversee a new district within the city — one that includes all of the city’s majority-white neighborhoods, among other areas. The white state attorney general would appoint four prosecutors, a court clerk, and four public defenders for the new district. The white state public safety commissioner would oversee an expanded Capitol Police force, run currently by a white chief.

The appointments by state officials would occur in lieu of judges and prosecutors being elected by the local residents of Jackson and Hinds County — as is the case in every other municipality and county in the state.

Mississippi’s capital city is 80% Black and home to a higher percentage of Black residents than any major American city. Mississippi’s Legislature is thoroughly controlled by white Republicans, who have redrawn districts over the past 30 years to ensure they can pass any bill without a single Democratic vote. Every legislative Republican is white, and most Democrats are Black.

After thorough and passionate dissent from Black members of the House, the bill passed 76-38 Tuesday primarily along party lines. Two Black member of the House — Rep. Cedric Burnett, a Democrat from Tunica, and Angela Cockerham, an independent from Magnolia — voted for the measure. All but one lawmaker representing the city of Jackson — Rep. Shanda Yates, a white independent — opposed the bill.

“Only in Mississippi would we have a bill like this … where we say solving the problem requires removing the vote from Black people,” Rep. Ed Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton, said while pleading with his colleagues to oppose the measure.

For most of the debate, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba — who has been publicly chided by the white Republicans who lead the Legislature — looked down on the House chamber from the gallery. Lumumba accused the Legislature earlier this year of practicing “plantation politics” in terms of its treatment of Jackson, and of the bill that passed Tuesday, he said: “It reminds me of apartheid.”

Hinds County Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten, who served in the House before being elected judge and would be one of the existing judges to lose jurisdiction under this House proposal, also watched the debate.

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who oversees the Capitol Police, watched a portion of the debate from the House gallery, chuckling at times when Democrats made impassioned points about the bill. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the only statewide elected official who owns a house in Jackson, walked onto the House floor shortly before the final vote.

Rep. Blackmon, a civil rights leader who has a decades-long history of championing voting issues, equated the current legislation to the Jim Crow-era 1890 Constitution that was written to strip voting rights from Black Mississippians.

“This is just like the 1890 Constitution all over again,” Blackmon said from the floor. “We are doing exactly what they said they were doing back then: ‘Helping those people because they can’t govern themselves.’”

The bill was authored by Rep. Trey Lamar, a Republican whose hometown of Senatobia is 172 miles north of Jackson. It was sent to Lamar’s committee by Speaker Philip Gunn instead of a House Judiciary Committee, where similar legislation normally would be heard.

“This bill is designed to make our capital city of Jackson, Mississippi, a safer place,” Lamar said, citing numerous news sources who have covered Jackson’s high crime rates. Dwelling on a long backlog of Hinds County court cases, Lamar said the bill was designed to “help not hinder the (Hinds County) court system.”

“My constituents want to feel safe when they come here,” Lamar said, adding the capital city belonged to all the citizens of the state. “Where I am coming from with this bill is to help the citizens of Jackson and Hinds County.”

Rep. Kathy Sykes, D-Jackson, left, asks Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, a question concerning infrastructure during a special session of the Legislature at the Capitol in Jackson Monday, August 27, 2018.

Many House members who represent Jackson on Tuesday said they were never consulted by House leadership about the bill. Several times during the debate, they pointed out that Republican leaders have never proposed increasing the number of elected judges to address a backlog of cases or increasing state funding to assist an overloaded Jackson Police Department.

In earlier sessions, the Legislature created the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which covers much of the downtown, including the state government office complex and other areas of Jackson. The bill would extend the existing district south to Highway 80, north to County Line Road, west to State Street and east to the Pearl River. Between 40,000 and 50,000 people live within the area.

Opponents of the legislation, dozens of whom have protested at the Capitol several days this year, accused the authors of carving out mostly white, affluent areas of the city to be put in the new district.

The bill would double the funding for the district to $20 million in order to increase the size of the existing Capitol Police force, which has received broad criticism from Jacksonians for shooting several people in recent months with little accountability.

The new court system laid out in House Bill 1020 is estimated to cost $1.6 million annually.

Democratic members of the House said if they wanted to help with the crime problem, the Legislature could increase the number of elected judges in Hinds County. Blackmon said Hinds County was provided four judges in 1992 when a major redistricting occurred, and that number has not increased since then even as the caseload for the four judges has exploded.

In addition, Blackmon said the number of assistant prosecuting attorneys could be increased within Hinds County. In Lamar’s bill, the prosecuting of cases within the district would be conducted by attorneys in the office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who is white.

Blackmon said the bill was “about a land grab,” not about fighting crime. He said other municipalities in the state had higher crime rates than Jackson. Blackmon asked why the bill would give the appointed judges the authority to hear civil cases that had nothing to do with crime.

“When Jackson becomes the No. 1 place for murder, we have a problem,” Lamar responded, highlighting the city’s long backlog of court cases. Several Democrats, during the debate, pointed out that the state of Mississippi’s crime lab has a lengthy backlog, as well, adding to the difficult in closing cases in Hinds County.

Lamar said the Mississippi Constitution gives the Legislature the authority to create “inferior courts,” as the Capitol Complex system would be. The decisions of the appointed judges can be appealed to Hinds County Circuit Court.

Democrats offered seven amendments, including one to make the judges elected. All were defeated primarily along partisan and racial lines.

“We are not incompetent,” said Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. “Our judges are not incompetent.”

An amendment offered by Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, to require the Capitol Police to wear body cameras was approved. Lamar voiced support for the amendment.

Much of the debate centered around the issue of creating a court where the Black majority in Hinds County would not be allowed to vote on judges.

One amendment that was defeated would require the appointed judges to come from Hinds County. Lamar said by allowing the judges to come from areas other than Hinds County would ensure “the best and brightest” could serve. Black legislators said the comment implied that he judges and other court staff could not be found within the Black majority population of Hinds County.

When asked why he could not add more elected judges to Hinds County rather than appointing judges to the new district, Lamar said, “This is the bill that is before the body.”

Bigger utilities to benefit most from Biden's clean-energy funds


Biden walks past solar panels in Plymouth

Tue, February 7, 2023 
By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Large U.S. electric utilities with renewable power projects in the works will benefit most in the sector from new federal clean energy funding, analysts and researchers said, with those already at the forefront of developing solar and wind cleaning up.

The Biden administration's $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act devotes billions of dollars for tax credits and direct payments for solar, wind, battery and other energy sources to move electric power supplies from fossil fuels.

Regulated utilities including Duke Energy Corp and Dominion Energy Inc begin reporting fourth-quarter results this week and analysts expect them to lay out plans for capitalizing on the IRA.

"The main beneficiaries are likely going to be the utilities that eventually acquire (these) projects and already had some in the pipeline," said Ryan Kronk, power markets analyst at consultancy Rystad Energy, adding the full effects would likely be delayed due to labor and supply chain constraints.

NextEra Energy Inc last month said the new law's extension of tax credits has stabilized the renewables outlook and spurred investments.

NextEra, the biggest U.S. generator of renewable energy, has a backlog of 16,500 megawatts of renewables projects. The parent of Florida Power and Light has added 25% to that backlog in the last year, executives have said.

The company's business providing services to other utilities expanding into clean technologies will give it an added boost from the IRA, said Michael Doyle, senior equity analyst for utilities at brokerage firm Edward Jones.

Duke, which has directed 80% of its five-year $63 billion capital plan towards clean energy, also stands to be a major benefactor.

"What the IRA does is it lowers costs for customers," said Duke spokesman Neil Nissan. Duke also owns the largest U.S. nuclear fleet, which will see new advantages under the IRA, he added.

NextEra and Dominion were not immediately available for comment.

Where utilities are located will help determine how much they can gain from the IRA, said Emily Beagle, research associate at Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin.

Solar projects in sunny states in the south and southwest and wind projects in the Midwest are among the best situated to collect IRA dollars, she said. One caveat is the greater the rate-paying population, generally the better off the utility.

Developers are expected to add nearly 55 gigawatts of utility-scale electric generation this year, with more than half coming from solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Smaller utilities and cooperatives are not completely left out. They stand to benefit from the IRA's direct-pay provisions, Beagle said.

The full impact of climate-friendly incentives will likely take a "few years" to arrive, said Michael Haggarty, associate managing director, Moody’s Investors Service.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

India BJP ignored the concerns of its own finance ministry to favor Adani



Niharika Sharma
Wed, February 8, 2023 

The crisis in India’s Adani group has revived allegations that the conglomerate has had the backing of prime minister Narendra Modi’s government for years, the latter’s noticeable silence on the matter notwithstanding.

A key area of focus among India’s opposition parties now is Adani’s winning bid a few years ago to manage six major airports, making the company the country’s largest airport operator. Interestingly, it had no prior experience in airport management at that time, sparking allegations of undue favors and crony capitalism.

“From running a private airstrip at Mundra, the Adani group’s transformation into the country’s largest private developer...happened over less than 24 months,” The Indian Express reported today (Feb. 8).

Several news media outlets had earlier reported that the Indian government had ignored concerns of its own finance ministry and its think tank, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, on the matter.

The Adani group has been rocked by allegations of fraud and stock manipulation made by US-based Hindenburg Research last month. A stock market blood bath followed, wiping out the group’s market capitalization by more than $100 billion.
Modi’s alleged favoritism toward Gautam Adani

In February 2019, the Gautam Adani-led group won the bid to operate six airports—Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram.

However, India’s department of economic affairs (DEA) under its finance ministry and NITI Aayog had objected to giving all six airports to one bidder, the Indian Express reported in 2021, citing government documents.

DEA did not favor letting one bidder win more than two airports as that could lead to a huge financial risk. NITI Aayog said, “a bidder lacking sufficient technical capacity can well jeopardize the project and compromise the quality of services that the government is committed to providing.”

Earlier, in March 2019, the online portal Newsclick, also based on documents, made similar allegations about the move to privatize the airports in the first place. “...conditions were set up that apparently favored the Adani group...the proposal to privatize the six airports was conceived and pushed through in a tearing hurry, in contravention of the law and existing procedures,” Newsclick reported.

What the Modi government has to say?

The government has consistently denied favoring Adani. Recently, Gautam Adani himself denied receiving personal favors from the prime minister. He was responding to doubts over his meteoric rise under the Modi regime.

Meanwhile, after losing over $100 billion in market capitalization following the Hindenburg report’s publication on Jan. 24, the freefall in Adani stocks has ended, at least for now. The quarterly earnings reports by the group companies may have helped. Besides, the group is also mulling prepaying $1.1 billion in loans to soothe panicked investors.

Media reports published shortly before the crisis erupted had said Adani may bid for more airports that the government is set to auction. However, with its ability to spend on major projects now massively curbed, the plan may hit a speed bump.

Mexico expects US to finance 4 wind power plants


 People walk near wind turbines on a government-sponsored wind farm, inaugurated by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in La Rumorosa, northern Mexico, March 9, 2010. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023 that he expects the U.S. government or U.S. banks to provide interest-free loans to build four wind-power farms in the narrow waist of southern Mexico, an area known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias, File)

Wed, February 8, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Wednesday that he expects the U.S. government or U.S. banks to provide interest-free loans to build four wind-power farms in the narrow waist of southern Mexico, an area known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he expects the U.S. to go there next month along with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to launch the projects.

López Obrador also fueled speculation that U.S. automaker Tesla will build a plant in Mexico, saying that he had been told that Elon Musk's company was looking at either the northern border state of Nuevo Leon or the state of Hidalgo, just north of Mexico City.

The wind farms on the isthmus are part of López Obrador’s plans to build a total of 10 industrial parks along a renovated rail corridor linking the Pacific and Gulf coasts, as part of an effort to create jobs in the poorer, less-developed south of Mexico.

However, the construction of wind farms has faced past opposition from local residents in the area.

And López Obrador's administration also has refused previously to grant permits for private renewable energy projects backed by foreign investors in Mexico, sparking a commercial dispute with the United States.

The president has invested heavily in propping up the long-struggling state-owned electrical power company, and he said the new wind farms would be run by the state-owned firm.

López Obrador has pushed legislation that gives advantages to the state-owned electric company over private energy production, which in many cases was cleaner. It is the subject of a trade dispute with the United States and Canada.

China's demand for Africa's donkeys is rising. Why it's time to control the trade

Lauren Johnston, Senior Researcher, South African Institute of International Affairs

The Conversation,
Tue, February 7, 2023 

Women walk with their donkeys in Ethiopia's Amhara region. Buena Vista Images/GettyImages

In recent years, there’s been a huge, rising demand for donkey hides in China, where they are used to make an ancient health-related product called ejiao. Ejiao is made from collagen that’s been extracted from donkey hides mixed with herbs and other ingredients to create medicinal and health consumer products. It’s believed to have properties that strengthen the blood, stop bleeding and improve the quality of both vital fluids and sleep.

Ejiao sells for about US3 per kilo and the Chinese market for it has increased from about US.2 billion in 2013 to about US.8 billion in 2020. This recent rise in demand is driven by several factors, including rising incomes, popularisation of the product via a television series, and an ageing population (age is a key demographic driving demand). In addition, ejiao is sometimes prescribed by doctors and the cost can newly be covered by health insurance.

Ejiao. HelloRF Zcool/Shutterstock

The demand for ejiao has led to a shortage of donkeys in China and increasingly worldwide. Countries in Africa have been particularly affected.

Africa is home to the highest number of donkeys in the world: about two-thirds of the estimated global population of 53 million donkeys in 2020. Exact figures on how many hides are exported to China aren’t available due to a growing illicit trade, but there are indications. A study of South Africa’s donkey population, for instance, suggests that it went from 210,000 in 1996 to about 146,000 in 2019. This was attributed to the export of donkey hides.

In a recent paper I examined the trends, issues and prospects for the Africa–China donkey trade. My information came from interviews, literature and news reviews in English and Chinese.

My findings are that the scale of the donkey trade, both illicit and legal, poses a challenge for many countries in Africa, especially in terms of its impact on the most marginalised communities. Besides donkey welfare, a big part of the challenge is how affordable donkeys are locally. Donkeys have a valuable, ancient role as a workhorse and losing access to them creates a huge problem for poor households. The other part of the challenge is regulatory. Only when the donkey hide trade is fully regulated - and export numbers are able to be very limited - might the trade work without adverse consequences for the poor.

This was also highlighted by a recent survey of the East African Community which found that the region was not ready for the mass slaughter and unregulated trade of donkeys. Millions of vulnerable East Africans rely on donkeys for a living and are at risk of losing out through the donkey skin trade.

Value of donkeys

Donkeys are estimated to support about 158 million people in Africa. In rural areas, the presence of a donkey in a household helps to alleviate poverty and frees women and girls from household drudgery.

Donkeys are one of the simplest, most sustainable and affordable means of transporting people, goods and farm inputs and outputs from home to farm to market and vice versa, as well as to water wells and other places. Even in harsh environments donkeys can travel long distances with a heavy load, limited fluids, and without showing signs of fatigue. They are a durable household asset.

Donkey ownership increases productivity and lessens hard work by, for example, reducing the loads women must otherwise carry themselves. In Ghana, for instance, owning a donkey was found to save adults about five hours of labour a week, and children 10 hours a week. The presence of a donkey also freed girl children to go to school.

Donkeys can also carry heavy loads of firewood and water. This means people need to make fewer trips. This frees up labour and time for other income generating activities, such as sowing someone’s farm for money.

The value of having a donkey in the household is evident. The loss of a donkey to a household in rural Kenya is associated with an increased risk of poverty – children drop out of school, and there’s less water security and more economic fragility. This makes the donkey trade a sensitive topic.

Government responses

Rising Chinese demand for donkeys has elicited a variety of responses by governments across Africa.

Tanzania, for example, attempted to create a formal donkey industry and trade. But, in 2022, authorities banned it because legal supply couldn’t keep up with demand. Female donkeys typically produce only a few foals each in a lifetime.

In Kenya, public outrage – largely due to the rise of donkey prices and diminishing supply – led to a ban on exports in February 2020. Kenya’s donkey exporters, however, took their case against the ban to Kenya’s High Court in June 2020, and won.

Read more: Why Kenya has banned the commercial slaughter of donkeys

Elsewhere, countries such as Botswana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Tanzania banned donkey exports. Others, such as South Africa, banned or limited the donkey trade with requirements for established slaughterhouses and related quotas.

However, the implementation of donkey bans varies according to the strength of the regulatory capacity in each country - and how easy it is to smuggle things across borders.

In South Africa’s case, export quotas have merely sent the trade underground. This leads to more donkey theft. Illicitly traded hides from South Africa are typically from donkeys that are slaughtered inhumanely in the bush or in sub-standard slaughterhouses in Lesotho. Then they are exported to China.

Poverty also fosters the trade, which in turn can lead to further impoverishment. Donkey owners, needing a short-term income windfall, will sell their animal. It may then be slaughtered and traded illegally and lead to diminished income-earning opportunity in the medium and long run.

What needs to be done

A recent Pan-African Donkey Conference called for a 15-year continent-wide moratorium on the trade to allow supply to recover and regulatory capacity to be enhanced.

The ejiao industry in China is well organised and resourced. A handful of major firms and one province dominate the industry in China, and they are represented by the Shandong Ejiao Industry Association.

A China-Africa donkey hide trade may be possible if African countries get organised, form associations and establish a dialogue with the Shandong Ejiao Industry. The aim would be to work out sustainable mechanisms, prevent damage to local interests and help to counter the illicit trade.

In parallel to this, it would be important for animal welfare agencies in China to raise awareness of the illicit and damaging impact of the illicit donkey hide trade.

For now, I believe that the trade is premature. Better regulatory standards are needed by China’s ejiao industry such that illegally traded and stolen donkey hides are not part of the industry. Deeper cooperation across African countries would also help to preserve the ancient role of the donkey in supporting trade and the continent’s most vulnerable and geographically isolated groups.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Like this article? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Lauren Johnston, South African Institute of International Affairs.

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FASCIST U$A
Reporter arrested during news event on Ohio train derailment


Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine meets with reporters after touring the Norfolk Southern train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Wed, February 8, 2023 

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — A broadcast reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing Wednesday while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio.

NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident.

Lambert was held for about five hours before being released from jail, NewsNation reported.

“I’m doing fine right now. It’s been an extremely long day,” Lambert said after his release. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”

At the end of his news conference, DeWine said he didn't authorize the arrest and reporters have “every right" to report during briefings.

“If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong,” DeWine said.

A following statement from the governor's office said DeWine didn't see the incident because a bank of cameras blocked his view but he did hear a “disagreement toward the back of the gymnasium."

DeWine “has always respected the media’s right to report live before, during, and after his press briefings" the statement said.

Mike Viqueira, NewsNation’s Washington Bureau chief, called the arrest an infuriating violation of the First Amendment.

The Washington, D.C.-based Lambert could still face charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, NewsNation said.

The Columbiana County Sheriff's Office administration said the arrest was made by officers from the East Palestine Police Department. A message seeking comment from the department was not immediately returned.

About 50 train cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday night on the edge of East Palestine. Federal investigators say a mechanical issue with a rail car axle caused the derailment.

Nearby residents in Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania were ordered to evacuate when authorities decided on Monday to release and burn chemicals from five tankers filled with vinyl chloride, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.

At the news conference, authorities said sampling had shown air quality in the area was safe and residents could return home, although DeWine said some residents may want to wait until the air inside their homes is checked.

The news conference started more than two hours late and DeWine started speaking at the same instant Lambert had to do a live broadcast from the back of the gym, Preston Swigart, a photographer who was with Lambert, told NewsNation.

Swigart said police officers approached Lambert and asked him to stop talking. Lambert finished the live report but was then asked to leave by authorities, who tried to forcibly remove him from the event, NewsNation reported.

“From their standpoint, he didn’t obey orders,” Swigart said. “Gymnasiums are echoey and loud and sound kind of carries, so I’m guessing that they just didn’t like the fact that there was sound competing with the governor speaking, even though it was all the way at the other end of the room.”

The anchor handling the report said she heard the reporter saying, “The governor has just started speaking. I'm being told that I have to quit my report" before it was cut short.

Video captured by NewsNation affiliate WKBN-TV showed Lambert on his face on the ground being handcuffed. He was then taken outside and placed in the back of a sheriff's patrol car.

Total Puts Investment In $50 Billion Hydrogen Project On Hold

By Charles Kennedy - Feb 09, 2023

French TotalEnergies is putting on hold its plans to take a 25% stake in embattled Adani Group’s $50-billion hydrogen project, pending what it has called “clarity” over recent allegations that have caused Adan’s stock to plunge and even led to anti-government street protests in India.  

As one of Adani’s biggest foreign investors with existing stakes in Adani’s gas and renewable energy companies totalling over $3 billion, TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné said during an earnings call that “it makes no sense to add more [projects] until there is clarity. Adani has to explain the allegations”.

TotalEnergies, in June 2022, announced it would take a 25% equity in Adani New Industries ltd (ANIL), which would invest $50 billion over a decade in a green hydrogen project that planned to produce 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen before 2030. 

A short seller report has accused Adani of various fraudulent practices, resulting in the Adani companies losing tens of billions of dollars when investors exited in a panic. The report also led Adani Group to cancel a $2.5-billion share offering.

The incident has also led to protests in India, with hundreds of opposition party demonstrators taking to the street in New Delhi, calling on Prime Minister Narenda Modi to order an investigation into the Adani Group.  

On Monday, the Adani Group said its major investors had pledged to prepay $1.1 billion in share-backed loans that mature in September 2024, leading to a 9% jump in one Adani stock, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone.

TotalEnergies has shares in Adani Green Energy Ltd and city gas unit Adani Total Gas Ltd. With respect to its existing investments in Adani, Pouyanne said in the latest earnings call that the investments are performing well, with “healthy” assets and revenue. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com 

Exxon Unveils New Trading Division To Compete With Shell And BP

By ZeroHedge - Feb 09, 2023

Exxon Mobil shares are rebounding back towards record highs this morning after The Wall Street Journal reports that the giant energy company will be combining business units as part of a continuing corporate reorganization that will cut costs and trim some jobs.

After recently posting a record profit in 2022 (and facing wrath of The White House), the US oil company will, according to a memo sent to employees, form three new organizations under which it will wed several smaller units later this year such as its financial-services, procurement and customer-service groups

Exxon said in the memo the consolidation plan is “not about headcount reductions.”

“We want simpler processes and more modern tools that allow us to work more quickly and with less frustration, at lower cost,” the company said.

“We want a company that operates at scale, taking advantage of our integrated business model in everything it does.”

XOM is up over 1% today, even as oil prices slide, pushing back up towards its record highs...

The reshuffling is the latest move in a multiyear effort by Exxon to try to save $9 billion in annual costs by the end of this year, compared with 2019.

The company said late last month it is on track to cut another $2 billion this year on top of $7 billion in savings it has found in initiatives such as putting its refining and chemicals businesses under one roof last year.

Additionally, Bloomberg reports that the supermajor is creating a global trading division to compete more aggressively with the likes of BP and Shell in the high-risk, high-reward world of energy derivatives.

The new division will bring together Exxon’s crude, natural gas, power and petroleum-product desks, the company said in an email to employees that was seen by Bloomberg.

Global Trading, to be formed later this year, will focus on “driving commercial intensity and ultimately delivering industry-leading trading results,” according to the email sent on Thursday.

Bloomberg notes that Exxon first dipped its toes in trading in 2018 but took a cautious approach, gradually hiring traders and building out systems with a focus on natural hedges around its operations rather than speculative bets. During the pandemic, the company pulled back, cutting capital available to traders at a time of extreme market volatility that delivered massive profits to rivals oil companies.

Specific details such as hiring targets and capital commitments were not disclosed.

By Zerohedge.com