Sir Keir is ‘selling the Labour Party’s soul in order to enter Downing Street’ and turning it into a ‘poundshop Tory tribute act’, says SNP’s Westminster leader

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer speaking in east London, following the Equality and Human Rights Commission's announcement that it has concluded its monitoring of the Labour Party. Picture date: Wednesday February 15, 2023.

SIR KEIR STARMER is “selling Labour’s soul and turning it into a pound shop Tory tribute act” because he thinks it will win him power, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn charged today.

The Aberdeen South MSP argued that Scotland “deserves better than a damaging choice of two pro-Brexit Tory Prime Ministers, but that is all the Westminster parties have to offer.”

His comments came after Sir Keir ignored internal party democracy and vowed his left-wing predecessor Jeremy Corbyn would never again be a Labour MP after being thrown out of the parliamentary party in 2020.

The increasingly authoritarian ex-director of public prosecutions also invited his critics to quit the party, saying: “If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to stay.”

But Mr Flynn said: “Keir Starmer is selling the Labour Party’s soul in order to enter Downing Street.

“Instead of offering meaningful change, he’s turned the party into a pound shop Tory tribute act that backs Brexit, denies Scottish democracy and wants to impose Tory cuts and creeping privatisation.”

Starmer to make EU trade and standards pledge as Tories ‘give up on farmers’


Helena Horton Environment reporter
Sun, 19 February 2023

Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Keir Starmer will promise farmers a closer trading relationship with the EU and to protect high British food standards, as he says the Conservatives have “given up on farmers”.

The Labour leader will make his pitch to the rural community in a speech to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) on Tuesday, promising more police and community support officers in the countryside.

Starmer will highlight how under 13 years of Conservative rule, public services have crumbled in rural areas and crime rates have increased.

“If your village has an antisocial behaviour problem, or a fly-tipping problem, or off-road biking, and the only police officers around are in a station or custody suite miles away, filing an arrest, off the streets for hours – that’s a unique problem,” he will tell the conference.

“We’ll get 13,000 more police into our towns and villages, more police on countryside streets.

“All of this requires a different approach. One that is designed – from the start – with respect for the challenges of the countryside.”

The Labour party has announced new policies on crime in recent days, with the shadow justice secretary, Steve Reed, pledging “clean up squads” for fly-tippers.

The NFU has lobbied for years against trade deals that could undercut British farmers, such as the one the former prime minister Liz Truss struck with Australia, amid fears that post-Brexit Britain would be too reliant on imports.

Thérèse Coffey this week told the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture winter conference in Washington DC, that she hoped to increase trade with the US and import more of its “fantastic produce”.

However, Starmer will tell the conference that under a Labour government, British farmers will be prioritised and standards upheld.

He will say: “It was obvious the Conservative party had given up on farmers when they elected Liz Truss. Labour’s approach to trade will be very different – I can promise you that. We want to remove barriers to exporters, not put them up. We want to protect high British standards, not water them down.

“We are going to talk to our friends in the European Union, and we are going to seek a better trading relationship for British farming.”

The conference, held in the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, will also hear from Coffey and the farming minister, Mark Spencer.

Farmers will be hoping to hear greater clarity from the ministers on the new post-Brexit nature payments schemes, which replace the EU’s common agricultural policy subsidies. Many have complained the new payments system leaves them out of pocket, with many unable to access funds.

Starmer’s speech will not explicitly mention the farming payments, and Labour has not yet committed to spending the same as, or more than, the Conservatives, who have promised £2.4bn a year to land managers. The Liberal Democrats have said they would exceed this budget.

The Labour leader will, however, pledge to look at the supply chain, which many farmers have said is unfair as they make less than a penny an item from many popular supermarket staples, such as bread and cheese.

He will say: “All around the world, businesses are looking again at the resilience of their supply chains. Reacting to the crises we have faced and will face in the future – countries must do the same. That’s not protectionist. It’s the reality of delivering national resilience in this new era.”

Labour will reintroduce tougher Asbos with powers to make arrests

Will Hazell
Sat, 18 February 2023 

Hoodies on bikes - Getty Images

Labour have pledged to reintroduce a strengthened version of the Asbo that would allow police to arrest those engaging in anti-social behaviour.

The party said the “Respect Orders” would tackle serial offenders and help clean up high streets.

In 2014, the Government overhauled powers relating to anti-social behaviour, abolishing Labour’s anti-social behaviour orders (Asbo).

The orders were replaced with anti-social behaviour injunctions, which were supposed to provide a speedier response to unacceptable behaviour. There were also concerns that for some hardened offenders, being slapped with an Asbo was regarded as a badge of honour.

However, Labour have criticised the injunctions because in most circumstances breaching them does not allow for an arrest to be made. The party has argued that this results in the police and councils not even bothering to apply for them in many areas.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the Respect Orders would create stronger enforcement powers, including a new criminal offence covering adults who have repeatedly committed anti-social behaviour while ignoring warnings by courts and the police.

Crucially, the orders would come with the power of arrest.

Ms Cooper said: “Anti-social behaviour makes people’s lives a misery. The disgraceful behaviour of a small minority undermines communities, blights town centres, and leaves people feeling unsafe.

“Some town centres have been particularly hard hit with vandalism, harassment and abuse towards shoppers and staff, street drinking and drug dealing.”

According to an analysis by the party, recorded instances of criminal damage to shops, schools, leisure centres and businesses have increased by more than 30 per cent over the past year. In the year ending September 2021, 41,550 offences of “criminal damage to a building other than a dwelling” were recorded by police. In the following year this had risen to 54,487.

Ms Cooper went on: “The Conservatives have turned their backs on communities struggling with anti-social behaviour – cutting neighbourhood police and cutting enforcement action. Time and again people report problems but no one comes and nothing is done. Labour won’t stand for that.

“The next Labour government will put neighbourhood police back on the beat and make sure they have proper powers to act against repeat anti-social behaviour offenders. Our action plan will finally give communities the action and support they need.”

The Respect Orders are the latest policy from Labour aimed at showing voters the party is tough on crime ahead of the next election.

Last week, Labour said that fly-tippers would be forced to join community “chain gangs” to clean up the rubbish they have dumped.

A Tory spokesman said: “Since 2010, Labour have voted against tougher sentences, more powers for the police and more police funding at least 34 times. They have specifically voted against tougher sentences for desecration of war memorials. It's yet another example of them saying one thing and doing the opposite.”

As the Colorado River shrinks, federal officials consider overhauling Glen Canyon Dam

Ian James
Sat, February 18, 2023 

The Colorado River's decline threatens hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam. Now, officials are looking at retooling the dam to deal with low water levels. (Joshua Lott / Washington Post)

The desiccation of the Colorado River has left Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, at just 23% of capacity, its lowest level since it was filled in the 1960s.

With the reservoir now just 32 feet away from "minimum power pool" — the point at which Glen Canyon Dam would no longer generate power for six states — federal officials are studying the possibility of overhauling the dam so that it can continue to generate electricity and release water at critically low levels.

A preliminary analysis of potential modifications to the dam emerged during a virtual meeting held by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which is also reviewing options for averting a collapse of the water supply along the river. These new discussions about retooling the dam reflect growing concerns among federal officials about how climate change is contributing to the Colorado River's reduced flows, and how declining reservoirs could force major changes in dam management for years to come.

Among the immediate concerns is the threat of the reservoir dropping below the dam’s power-generating threshold. If that were to occur, water would only flow through four 8-foot-wide bypass tubes, called the outlet works, which would create a chokepoint with reduced water-releasing capacity.

“There is now an acknowledgment, unlike any other time ever before, that the dam is not going to be suited to 21st century hydrology,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the environmental group Great Basin Water Network, who listened to the meeting. “They're not sugarcoating that things have to change there, and they have to change pretty quickly.”

Those who participated in the Feb. 7 meeting included dozens of water mangers, representatives of electric utilities, state officials and others. They discussed proposals such as penetrating through the dam’s concrete to make new lower-level intakes, installing a new or reconfigured power plant, and tunneling a shaft around either side of the dam to a power plant, among other options.

The Interior Department declined a request for an interview, but spokesperson Tyler Cherry said in email that the briefing was part of broader conversations with state officials, tribal leaders, water managers and others “to inform our work to improve and protect the short-term sustainability of the Colorado River System and the resilience of the American West to a changing climate.”

Roerink and two other people who listened to the webinar told The Times that cost estimates for several alternatives ranged from $500 million to $3 billion. The agency will need congressional approval and will have to conduct an environmental review to analyze options.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s presentation, given by regional power manager Nick Williams, included some additional alternatives that wouldn’t require major structural modifications of the dam. Those options included adjusting operations to maximize power generation at low reservoir levels, studying ways of using the existing intakes at lower water levels, and making up for the loss of hydroelectric power by investing in solar or wind energy.

Glen Canyon Dam stands 710 feet tall, anchored to the canyon's reddish sandstone walls in northern Arizona, about 320 miles upstream from Lake Mead, the nation's largest reservoir. The dam has been controversial since its inception, with environmental activists and others arguing the reservoir was unnecessary and destroyed the canyon’s pristine ecosystem.

Lake Powell and Lake Mead have declined over the last 23 years during the most severe drought in centuries. Federal officials have sought to boost Powell's levels in recent months by reducing the amount of water they release downstream until the spring runoff arrives. They’ve said they may need to further cut water releases.

A central concern is that if the water drops below minimum power pool — 3,490 feet above sea level under the current operating rules — the main intakes would need to be shut down and water would instead flow through the dam’s lower bypass tubes. Because of those tubes’ reduced capacity, that could lead to less water passing downstream, shrinking the river’s flow in the Grand Canyon and accelerating the decline of Lake Mead toward “dead pool” — the point at which water would no longer pass through Hoover Dam to Arizona, California and Mexico.

Federal officials prepared the initial studies of alternatives for Glen Canyon Dam using $2 million that the Bureau of Reclamation secured as part of $200 million for drought response efforts.

According to a slide presentation shown at the meeting, officials see potential hazards in some of the six alternatives. Piercing the dam’s concrete to create new low-level or mid-level intakes, for example, would entail “increased risk from penetration through dam,” the presentation says.

They also describe risks due to possible “vortex formation,” or the creation of whirlpools above horizontal intakes as the water level declines. Their formation could cause damage if air is pulled into the system. The presentation says one alternative would involve lowering the minimum power pool limit and possibly installing structures on the intakes to suppress whirlpools, but it said this still would not allow for the water level to go much lower.

One of the possible fixes includes installing a new power plant that would generate electricity with water flowing from the bypass tubes, or taking a similar approach using existing infrastructure. Another would involve excavating a tunnel to the left or right side of the dam, and installing a power plant underground or in the riverbed.

Other options include changing operations at both Glen Canyon and Hoover dams “to maximize power generation under low flow conditions using existing infrastructure.”

“Any of the options are going to be very expensive and they're going to be very time-consuming,” said Leslie James, executive director of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Assn., who participated in the meeting.

James praised the Bureau of Reclamation for “starting the processes to look at structural options like this.”

“I see what they're doing here as getting an early start and at least evaluating everything that they can to look and see what may be feasible,” James said. She said she hopes Congress will provide the necessary funding to ensure continued electricity flowing from Glen Canyon Dam, given “how important hydropower is to entire communities.”

Her association represents nonprofit electric utilities that buy power produced by Glen Canyon Dam and other dams that are part of the Colorado River Storage Project. The association includes members in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. The utilities supply power in cities, rural areas, irrigation districts and tribal communities.

Power from the dam has long been a vital energy source, though its output has decreased dramatically in recent years as Lake Powell has declined. During the 2022 fiscal year, Glen Canyon Dam generated 2,591 gigawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power more than 240,000 average homes for a year.

James said electric utilities across the region have had to make up for the reduced hydropower by turning to other costlier sources.

“It's a real challenging time,” James said. “And it is the people in these communities that are ultimately being impacted with higher electricity bills.”

Lake Powell’s level is projected to rise this spring with runoff from the above-average snowpack in the Rocky Mountains. But that boost in water levels is expected to have a limited effect on the deep water deficit that has accumulated over more than two decades.

And in the long term, scientific research indicates warming and drying will continue to take a major toll on the river.

Scientists have found that roughly half the decline in the river’s flow since 2000 has been caused by higher temperatures, that climate change is driving the aridification of the Southwest, and that for each additional 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, the river’s average flow will probably decrease about 9%.

Environmental activists have for years urged the federal government to consider draining Lake Powell, decommissioning the dam and storing the water downstream in Lake Mead.

Activists who listened to the Bureau of Reclamation’s presentation said they welcome the agency’s examination of the issues at Glen Canyon Dam but would prefer to see a broader analysis that evaluates other options, including draining the reservoir.

In a report last year, Roerink’s Great Basin Water Network and two other groups warned that the “antiquated plumbing system inside Glen Canyon Dam represents a liability to Colorado River Basin water users who may quickly find themselves in legal jeopardy and water supply shortfalls.”

“The bureau is admitting that the dam is a liability,” Roerink said. “From my perspective, that's a good first step.”

Beyond the current focus on trying to prop up hydropower generation, Roerink said, “I think we need an option that is just a bypass option without a power plant at the end of it.”

Roerink said he expects there will be a lot of debate about issues such as evaporation from the reservoir and the high costs of modifications to the dam.

“Is it all worth it? Are the taxpayer dollars going to be worth it for those electrons?” Roerink said. “How long will it be until this just proves itself to be a futile exercise?”

John Weisheit, an activist who has advocated for removing the dam, said he was delighted to hear federal officials openly discussing these options for the first time.

“I'm glad we're having this conversation. It's long overdue,” said Weisheit, who is co-founder of the group Living Rivers.

Weisheit said he also thinks the agency’s alternatives aren’t broad enough, and leave unanswered questions about the dam’s life span.

“I think it's imperative that we know exactly what the life span of this dam is,” Weisheit said. “There is so much more that needs to be discussed.”

Weisheit said one major concern should be the accumulation of sediments in the bottom of the reservoir, which, according to a recent federal survey, has lost nearly 6.8% of its water-storing capacity.

Another issue with the agency’s current alternatives, he said, is that they wouldn’t solve problems of intakes or bypass tubes sucking in air at low water levels, “just like everybody's bathtub does,” potentially causing cavitation that would pit and tear into metal, damaging the infrastructure.

Weisheit said he also was concerned about potential threats to endangered fish in the Grand Canyon.

Overall, the modifications to the dam that the federal government is considering would be “too much investment for very little return,” Weisheit said. “And it's going to take a long, long time.”

Weisheit said he favors the option of investing in solar and wind energy. Instead of spending up to $3 billion trying to squeeze a shrinking amount of power from the dam, he said, “you can build a lot of solar cells and turbines,” including nearby on the Navajo Nation, which needs electricity.

Weisheit said he thinks the situation shows Glen Canyon Dam isn’t needed.

“Take the dam out,” he said, “because it's not the right dam for climate change.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Israelis protest judicial overhaul plans for 7th week






Israelis carry torches during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Sat, February 18, 2023


TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis marched Saturday in several cities against judicial overhaul plans proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The demonstration took place in the central city of Tel Aviv, part of a weekly protest campaign that has kicked off since Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced the proposed changes in early January.

Netanyahu and his supporters, members of the most religious, right-wing government in the country’s history, say the changes are needed to rein in a judiciary that wields too much power.

But critics, who include large sectors of Israeli society, say the overhauls would weaken Israel’s Supreme Court and damage the country’s fragile system of democratic checks and balances. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, is motivated by a personal grudge against the legal system and has a deep conflict of interest. Netanyahu has said he is a victim of a witch hunt.

In Tel Aviv, protesters raised large Israeli flags and held banners reading “Bibi (Netanyahu) everything has its end.” Other posters read “Freedom, Justice, Peace” and “Rotten Banana Republic.”

“This legislation is unacceptable, said Ret. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, former chief of staff of Israel’s military. “And we will do our best in order to prevent it from happening.”

On Sunday, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog urged Netanyahu to seek a compromise with his political opponents and delay the contentious judiciary overhaul plans, but on Monday the government formally launched the plans at the Knesset as tens of thousands protested outside the building.

Tiny College Hijacked by Woke-Obsessed DeSantis Saddles Up to Fight Back

Eileen Grench
Sat, February 18, 2023 

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Reuters and Alaska Miller/Wikimedia Commons

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six conservative trustees to the board of New College of Florida—his latest chess move in his war on education—the roughly 650 students studying there were caught by surprise.

The tiny university, best known for ranking as fifth best public school in the country and pumping out Fulbright scholars, suddenly found itself at the center of the country’s culture war, and the latest target in DeSantis’ march towards the presidency.

Almost immediately, students who disagreed with the proposed changes and pledged to fight back felt the heat of a well-funded, well-organized takeover, and the sudden spotlight of the right-wing movement, all while still going to class.

But they have now found help as well—in the form of an army of alumni determined to support students at their alma mater and fight back against what they believe is an attack on New College’s educational freedom.

“A few alumni and I were on a text thread talking about it, then started a Slack thread, then started having meetings over Zoom, and talking about what was happening,” New College alumnus Julia Daniel, a professional community organizer, told The Daily Beast. This growing army quickly got in touch with students they saw “rising up, fighting back.”

“We really wanted to figure out how we can resource them,” she said.

They Were Loving College. Then Ron DeSantis Got Involved.

And the movement has grown. From helping students manage media requests, to raising over $120,000, to pondering legislative and legal strategies, or even just sending pizza to campus, a group of hundreds have teamed up over social media channels and weekly town hall meetings to pool their strengths and go to battle with Florida’s highest powers.

“This is a very personal story for all of us,” New College alumnus and University of Oxford Associate Professor S. Eben Kirksey told The Daily Beast. “And, you know, we’re all wanting to give back to this place that really made us who we are.”

Yet, the students and alumni face a formidable foe—and one that has not only won important battles already in the war to change the small-yet-storied college, but other areas of the state’s education as well.
‘Hostile takeover’

New College was founded in 1960 as a private college. Later it was folded into the state school system, and finally became an independent state school in 2001, when it was coined the “Honors College for the State of Florida,” according to the school’s website. But the notoriously progressive school has fallen squarely into DeSantis’ crosshairs as part of his attempt to pull the state’s education system far to the right with laws like the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and “Stay W.O.K.E Act” (mired in court), which severely limit teachers’ ability to instruct on topics of race, gender and diversity.

K-12 teachers have even physically covered up shelves of books they aren’t sure comply with new laws, and books as seemingly innocuous as baseball star Roberto Clemente’s children’s book, which references racism, were removed amid another pending review.

Days after DeSantis appointed new trustees as part of what he called an effort to “restructure” New College in the face of student “indoctrination,” he rejected a newly piloted Advanced Placement course in African-American Studies in high schools, claiming the syllabus—built with input from preeminent scholars and thinkers—“lacks educational value.”

Once trustees were appointed by DeSantis last month, James Uthmeier, the governor’s chief of staff, declared the government’s plans to turn New College into an ultra-conservative Christian “Hillsdale of the South” in an interview with The Daily Caller. And since then, appointees have moved quickly on their aims.

“Everybody was just kind of like, I think taken by surprise by a very well-funded, well-coordinated, hostile takeover,” said Nirvan Mullik, a New College alumnus. “And this had been planned for a long time and the school was chosen, you know, because they're a small, seemingly defenseless college.”

The trustees include a Trump-allied professor, an editor for the far-right Claremont Institute, and Christopher Rufo, one of the key figures behind the misleading right-wing backlash against Critical Race Theory—a long-established academic framework which acknowledges systemic racism.

Rufo has also advocated abolishing diversity initiatives and has made fun of at least one trans New College student concerned about her own place and safety at the school.

This month, new trustee Eddie Speir declared his wishes to fire the president as well as all faculty. And last week, one of those goals was achieved when New College president Patricia Okker was ousted.

Once gone —despite fierce student and alumni-supported protests during the board meeting—she was replaced with DeSantis ally Richard Corcoran, who was given a salary bump to the tune of $699,000, more than twice what Okker was on.
Hitting back

Daniel, once a NCF sociology major, told The Daily Beast that since she got the first text message, she has barely had a moment’s rest.

“I haven’t had a lot of time off because outside of work and just on Zoom calls or on phone calls with students or other alumni trying to strategize and think about what the next move is, and then also... we’re in some grief because this is a hard thing to grapple with emotionally, too. Because an institution we love is under attack,” she said.

Nirvan Mullik, who grew up in Indian Harbor Beach and is now a filmmaker in California, helped set up a GoFundMe that has raised over $120,000 and is governed by what he said is an “ad-hoc committee of alumni and students.” He said his life has been “consumed with volunteering.”

“You know, New College has a lot of great lawyers, and they started self organizing and looking at legal issues and policy issues. We have like a bunch of people who do communications and media and strategy … everybody just started organizing into these self-organized channels, which is very New College, right? Like, it's a bunch of independent learners who set up their own curriculum and go do what they want to do.”

DeSantis Is Totally Ignorant of Why New College Is So Special

The Slack group that Daniel and others are a part of has grown to include hundreds of alumni wanting to help, which has called for the need of a weekly town hall meeting to coordinate efforts.

The handful of alumni interviewed by The Daily Beast said that their main aim was to support students in their own protests and their public counter-campaign to DeSantis’ takeover, and to counter what they consider false narratives about the rigor of their school.

They mentioned offering legal, legislative, and organizing support, and helping manage communication strategy, while letting students’ wishes and voices come first. “Making sure we’re lighting up student voices across the different groups that DeSantis is attacking,” said Daniel.

Daniel explained that she was especially proud when alumni gathered to bolster student efforts to protest, and garner media attention, after appointments were confirmed and new trustees attended their first public meeting.

Kirksey said that DeSantis’ narrative of indoctrination at the school is “misplaced,” and that New College is not, as the governor might insist, “broken.” He has not only been coordinating the alumni’s remote town hall meetings, he said, but also speaking to legislators, fact-checking claims made about the school, and stressing the value of its unique, Oxford-like self-directed studies.

“I study things like critical race theory, queer theory, and postcolonial theory,” he told The Daily Beast. “We also have people who went on to chair the federal reserve of New York. So the stories that they're telling about this place being broken, I think, are really out of sync with reality.”

Shannon O’Malley, a marketing consultant who graduated from New College in 2001, sees the effort to change her school, as well as DeSantis’ other radical changes to the education system, as something out of her own career’s playbook.

“He’s just priming the pump—he’s doing a lot of stuff that is going to appeal to what was Trump’s base. He’s stealing the most racist, sexist people and getting those voters. He’s getting all this press before he says on the record that he’s gonna run.”

O’Malley fears it’s the first testing ground of a growing right-wing plan to alter other states’ public education systems as well.

She, and other alumni interviewed by The Daily Beast, wonder as they try to slow down changes to their beloved school, whether the trustees and politicians are ready to face not only student and alumni pushback, but both Florida’s Sunshine Laws and even good old plain, boring bureaucracy as well.

“New college is just one notch on his belt, one PR notch on his belt. Like, ‘Look what I did, I ruined that snowflake lefty college,’ right? But, like, to actually do it, to actually change the curriculum and erase the mission and replace it with something new, there’s a lot of, like, bureaucracy and work and hiring and firing and all kinds of things that’s going to have to go on to do that,” she said.

The DeSantis administration did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast on Friday. In the meantime, alumni say they will keep up the fight.

“We’re up against a man who wants… to make headlines for himself to try to gain power and run for president, and he doesn’t mind his students being his political pawns,” said Mullik. “The political pawns are going to fight back.”

The Daily Beast.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Mexico is riveted on New York trial of its former security chief


Patrick J. McDonnell
Fri, February 17, 2023

After a four-week trial, jurors in U.S. District Court in New York continued deliberations Friday on the fate of former Mexican security chief Genaro García Luna, shown here in 2009. 

(Dario Lopez-Mills / Associated Press)

He has talked about the case for months, likening it to a television crime drama and saying its revelations dramatize the deep corruption of his predecessors.

But Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he isn’t going to forecast the outcome of the U.S. trial against this country’s former top security official.

“What do I expect from the jury? We are going to wait,” López Obrador told reporters Thursday. “I don’t want to make any prediction. But I am not going to let this be. We are not going to shut up.”

On Friday, the Mexican president called on Washington to investigate the role of U.S. law enforcement authorities and other U.S. officials who worked closely with Mexico’s ex-security chief.

Following a four-week trial, jurors in U.S. District Court in New York continued deliberations Friday on the fate of Genaro García Luna before going home without reaching a verdict. Deliberations are set to resume Tuesday.

While serving as Mexico’s chief law enforcement officer, García Luna is accused of having taken millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel formerly headed by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, now imprisoned for life in the United States after being tried three years ago in the same Brooklyn courthouse.

García Luna was the security secretary in the administration of President Felipe Calderón, who served from 2006 to 2012 and unleashed a bloody war against drug traffickers. The antidrug campaign, which often featured García Luna as its public face, left tens of thousands dead but failed to rein in cartels or reduce cross-border drug trafficking.

The prosecution in New York has drawn intense interest in Mexico, where its sometimes sensational disclosures about links between drug cartels and officials have featured prominently in the news and on social media. Mexican outlets have dispatched correspondents to New York to report on the proceedings.

In court, ex-cartel operatives with nicknames such as “The King,” “The Rabbit,” “The Devil” and “The Big One” have taken the stand to identify García Luna as a greedy crook who collected a fortune in cash as police and other officials on his watch allowed massive cocaine shipments to flow through Mexico to the United States.

The defense has characterized the witnesses incriminating García Luna as a collection of “murderers, kidnappers and criminals” who fabricated allegations in a bid to attain more lenient sentences from U.S. prosecutors.

For many Mexicans, the case has confirmed their worst suspicions about complicity between government officials and criminal gangs that run amok, profiting from the enormous illicit trade to the United States, along with other rackets. And, in a country where criminal trials are largely secret affairs based on written declarations, the sometimes explosive testimony from a U.S. courtroom has proved riveting.

“From the parade of witnesses of the prosecution we can ... argue that García Luna in reality is a symbol of what the court should be perceiving: Mexico is a rogue state that is rotten,” wrote columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio this week in El Financiero newspaper. “One doesn’t have to know the verdict on García Luna to suppose that, in the eyes of many Americans — and many others worldwide — we are a nation infiltrated and controlled by criminals.”

García Luna, 54, who cooperated closely with U.S. officials during his law enforcement career, has denied cocaine-smuggling and other charges and his lawyers depict him saying he was an exemplary public servant. He could face decades in prison if convicted. He did not testify during his trial.

He was arrested in 2019 in Texas after moving to the United States following his tenure as Mexico’s security boss tasked with fighting cartels.

Even Mexico’s president has seem stunned at the extent of collaboration exposed during testimony between the Mexican state and multibillion-dollar drug cartels.

“Imagine, why would one go to watch these Netflix series if reality exceeds them?” López Obrador said this month.

His morning news conferences have included frequent updates on the trial, including a slick video Thursday summarizing events to date.

Mexico is also pressing a civil case against García Luna in Florida courts in a bid to recuperate hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly embezzled by the former official.

For the Mexican president, the García Luna trial represents much more than the reckoning of yet another corrupt Mexican official. López Obrador has characterized the case as emblematic of the moral depravity of his predecessors, especially his loathed longtime political adversary, Calderón.

López Obrador has called García Luna the “right arm” of Calderón, questioning how the former president could have been unaware of his top cop’s alleged criminal behavior. Calderón has denied any knowledge of García Luna’s wrongdoing, though he acknowledged hearing “rumors” of García Luna’s purported ties to drug traffickers.

López Obrador has accused Calderón of stealing the 2006 presidential election, in which López Obrador was the runner-up in a close race. López Obrador was elected president in 2018 — his third attempt at the top office — on an anti-corruption platform.

The president regularly asserts that his leadership has largely eliminated the institutional graft that has long plagued Mexico.

For him, the corruption being bared in a New York courtroom is a reminder of a dark era, something far removed from the contemporary reality of his administration — an assertion that many in Mexico have questioned.

“It’s important to know that in our government there are no functionaries like García Luna,” the president said in November. “The authorities aren’t complicit, covering up and carrying out torture and massacres.”

Critics say there is little evidence that corruption had diminished under the leadership of López Obrador. The president has, however, greatly bolstered the security and economic portfolio of the Mexican military — a powerful bloc that has frequently been accused of human rights abuses.

In 2020, López Obrador objected vociferously to the White House after U.S. authorities arrested Mexico’s former defense secretary, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, at Los Angeles International Airport. He was detained on corruption charges similar to those against García Luna.

The arrest of the retired general deeply angered Mexico’s military brass, close allies of López Obrador. The Mexican president dismissed the U.S. drug-trafficking allegations against Cienfuegos as “garbage.” The Trump administration eventually relented, dropped the charges and returned Cienfuegos to Mexico.

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Candis Whitney: Congress deals blow to endangered North Atlantic right whale

Candis Whitney
Sun, February 19, 2023 

A mother right whale and her newborn were spotted east of Cumberland Island, Ga. in this 2014 photo taken for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under NOAA permit #15488. The Florida and Georgia coastlines are whale birthing grounds and winter habitat for the endangered mammals.

As we are in the midst of calving season for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, I can’t help but think of Snow Cone. Right whale 3560, nicknamed Snow Cone for her markings that resemble the summertime treat, is a right whale that I had the privilege of watching nurture and play with her baby calf off the coast of Florida just last spring.

Sadly, I am unlikely to see Snow Cone or her calf again. This past September, she was seen in extremely poor health, entangled in new fishing gear while still carrying gear from the previous entanglement. Numerous attempts to help disentangle her have failed.

Perhaps most tragic of all, her young calf, too young to survive without its mom, was nowhere to be found.

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Snow Cone is not alone in her experience. During their migration from their winter calving grounds in Florida to their feeding grounds in New England and Canada, right whales must navigate dense commercial fishing areas. Too often, they become entangled in the vertical ropes that connect buoys on the surface to lobster and crab traps on the seafloor.

Once entangled in vertical buoy lines, whales swim with attached gear for long distances, ultimately resulting in fatigue, compromised feeding ability, or severe injuries that lead to reduced reproductive success and painful, protracted deaths.

Entanglements are the greatest threat to North Atlantic right whales and have affected nearly all the 340 that remain alive, with over half having been entangled multiple times. Nearly 2/3 of known right whale deaths and serious injuries in the past six years are due to fishing gear entanglements.

With just 70 reproductively active females left and the population having already declined by 30% in the last 10 years, the right whale is on the knife-edge of extinction-- entanglement is about to push them over that edge.

Researchers hope that advancements being made in ropeless fishing technology can help better protect the North Atlantic right whale, the population of which continues to drop in part due to line entanglements and ship strikes.

The situation is so dire, a federal court last year ordered the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to craft new rules protecting the right whales from fishing entanglement by blocking off roped fishing where these whales are present.

However, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, with the support of senators Angus King and Chuck Schumer (as well as Janet Mills, quietly worked to attach a rider within the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus spending bill, overruling the court order and delaying the Federal Government from enacting these rope fishing restrictions until Dec. 31, 2028.

Some experts are saying this last-minute policy change, if left in place, is the death-blow that will cause the right whale to go extinct. Their numbers are too few and they are reproducing too slowly to survive another six years of mothers dying while trying to rear calves.

Supporters of the Collins provision will say the bill could, in the long-run, be helpful because it authorizes $40 million over ten years towards expanding ropeless technologies. However, there is no guarantee these funds will be appropriated. This ‘authorization’ merely sets the money aside in case a future Congress decides to fund this proposal.

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Furthermore, ropeless technology doesn’t need 10 years of research to begin implementing. The technology exists today and is already commercially in use. Collins’ provision harms the good fishing companies while protecting and giving a market-advantage to those fisheries unwilling to do their part to prevent an entire whale species from going extinct.

Finally (and most importantly), six years of research will do nothing to save a species that is likely to become functionally extinct before that time. A six-year delay in rules preventing rope entanglement will likely lead to dozens more deaths, something these whales likely cannot withstand without going extinct.

In this calving season, 12 new whales have been born. This is exactly what these whales need to have a real fighting chance for survival. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen with Snow Cone, these calves and their mothers could die mere months from now due to entanglement. We are nearly out of time. The only way the North Atlantic right whale can survive is if we stop human-caused deaths today, not six years from now.

It is my hope that Congress will undo this extinction-causing rule that was quietly snuck into the Omnibus that Congress had to pass in December. I sincerely hope that future generations will have the opportunity to witness the beauty of the North Atlantic right whale, free from entanglements.

Whitney

Candis Whitney is the former owner/operator of a 114-slip marina in Northeast Florida. A resident of Fernandina Beach, she currently serves as an organizer for the Amelia Island Conservation Network, the Right Whale Festival and board member for Wild Amelia.

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: New NOAA rules to protect right whales blocked by Congress

Russia’s Shadow Oil Tanker Fleet Becomes Everyone Else’s Problem



Asad Zulfiqar and Alex Longley
Fri, February 17, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- A $2.2 billion fleet of oil tankers has been assembled to keep Russian crude and fuels exports flowing.

Now, as some freight rates surge, executives are starting to ponder if they’ll ever return to serving everyone else.

The often-older ships, which began to show up when a flurry of vessels began changing hands to undisclosed buyers at exorbitant rates last year, have sliced off a chunk of the conventional fleet. Since sanctions came into effect on Russian refined fuels earlier this month, vessels hauling oil products across the Atlantic have posted a fivefold increase in their daily earnings.

Russia’s Dark Tanker Fleet Gets Stretched Sailing Thousands of Miles: Oil Strategy

Piecing together the exact size of the shadow fleet is almost impossible, with ownership details — and most individual vessels’ commitment to Russia — shrouded in secrecy. Commodity giant Trafigura estimated it could total 600 ships, of which 400 are crude haulers. Privately, some shipowners put the figure slightly lower — between 10% and 12% of the global tanker fleet.

Irrespective of whether they permanently leave the international market or merely shy away from it, the result could be higher shipping costs for Russia’s rivals.

“These ships will be dedicated to those shadow trades and de facto removed from the markets that we would find ourselves in,” Gernot Ruppelt, Chief Commercial Officer of Ardmore Shipping, which operates a fleet of fuel and chemicals tankers, said on an earnings call. “It is actually still important from a ton-mile perspective and it’s probably even more so important considering that it’s very inefficient.”

Ton miles are a metric of vessel demand, multiplying how much cargo ships transport by the distances involved in deliveries.

VesselsValue, which tracks ship sales and purchases estimates that last year a little more than $850 million was spent on expanding the “dark fleet” of fuel tankers. In addition, almost $1.4 billion was invested in crude oil carrying ships.

London-based EA Gibson Shipbrokers has counted at least 38 fuel-hauling ships which are owned by Russian registered companies but says the actual figure is likely to be higher as hard-to-track brass-plate offshore companies will own more vessels. It has also counted over 100 fuel tankers sold to countries outside of the G-7 or the European Union since the invasion of Ukraine.

“Whilst Russia does not explicitly control this many product carriers, given the large amount of older secondhand tankers sold since the invasion, it is possible that Russia can access sufficient vessels for this volume,” said Richard Matthews, Gibson’s head of research.

Critically, as well as a fleet that’s been split into Russian and non-Russian trading, a European Union ban on almost all seaborne petroleum imports from its one-time trade partner has meant that ships are having to sail longer distances. That’s made the fleet far less efficient, boosting demand for vessels and the cost of freight.

Russia’s pull refined fuel tankers is already influencing the supply of vessels elsewhere, according to shipbroking officials.

Markets for shipping clean petroleum products — such as diesel and jet fuel — are currently strong, according to Torm A/S, which owns a fleet of tankers. There is increased demand in the Middle East for Europe-bound cargoes as well as plenty of loadings from refineries in East Asia, the firm said by email.

Ships hauling refined fuels across the Atlantic are earning $55,000, having been as low as $10,000 a day earlier this month. Crude carriers are approaching a similar figure after briefly topping $100,000 a day late last year.

In the longer-term, shipowners point to a limited supply of new vessels bolstering the case for sustained high rates.

The tanker order-book is currently at a 40-year low, according to Brian Gallagher, head of investor relations at Euronav NV, while Ardmore also pointed to low levels of ship additions in its recent earnings.

A more pressing issue for shipping oil and fuel across the world, though, is how many vessels Russia is using.

If trade remains disrupted and the Russia-friendly fleet doesn’t return to serving western markets, the cost of hauling fuels like gasoline and diesel may stay higher for longer.

“We do have a sense that a lot of these businesses that are buying older ships are funded by Russian capital, in some shape or form,” said Svein Moxnes Harfjeld, CEO of DHT Holdings, an oil tanker company. “We find it hard to believe that they will stay in business over time or ever return to the compliant markets.”

--With assistance from Jack Wittels.

UK
Electricity grid delays sink plans for new fuel cell development centre

Rachel Millard
Sat, February 18, 2023 

National Grid - National Grid

One of Britain’s leading energy technology companies has been forced to shelve plans for a new development centre after being told it would take up to seven years to get connected to Britain’s power grid.

Ceres Power is scaling back its plans after being quoted long waits and costs of up to £15m for a connection to the electricity grid.

The development adds to growing concerns that problems with Britain’s creaking power infrastructure are holding back development and economic growth.

Ceres Power, which was spun out of Imperial College London and now has deals with global giants such as Shell and Bosch, warned it was having to “accept a level of compromise which no doubt slows our pace of growth and innovation”.

The fuel cell maker added: “If we want to create high growth companies, it is not just access to skilled people, we also need the right infrastructure to match the pace of our growth.”

Constraints on Britain’s electricity grid are emerging as a huge national challenge, with more and more projects such as wind turbines seeking connections, and electricity demand rising as a result of increased adoption of electric cars and population growth.

Phil Caldwell, chief executive of Ceres Power, said constraints were a “real issue for growth for industrial companies”.

Some renewable energy projects have been told they need to wait more than a decade to get connected to the grid. The South East faces particular challenges as a result of a large number of data centres in the area and high demand. Housing projects in west London have reportedly stalled as a result.

The experience of a company such as Ceres Power is likely to raise alarm in Whitehall, given its importance as a British technology success story. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, then international trade secretary, visited the company’s facilities in South Korea in 2022 as it signed a £43m partnership with South Korean conglomerate Doosan.

Ceres, currently valued at about £847m on AIM, makes fuel cells that can generate electricity from natural gas or other gases and can also be used in reverse as electrolysers to make hydrogen.

It started looking for a new site to develop its technology in the summer of 2021. The site, which would have created about 50-80 jobs, required significant power supplies as Ceres’ technology is energy intensive.

The company said it received quotes for connections of £5m to £15m and waits of four to seven years, depending on the location, which “doesn’t keep pace with our growth ambitions”.

Instead, it will try to expand testing work at an outsourced site in the Midlands and upgrade an existing site in Horsham. It is also considering using its own fuel cells to help meet its power needs.

National Grid - Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Chief executives are increasingly raising the alarm about the impact of non-financial barriers such as grid connections and planning delays to growth in the UK.

Simon Thomas, chief executive of graphene chip maker Paragraf, told The Telegraph that council officials’ indecision was costing his company “near on a million pounds” as vital machines were left without power.

Mr Thomas complained that local council officials had left his factory standing idle for six months over planning permission for an electricity cable.

“We took that facility knowing full well that the grid was able to supply us with the correct amount of power,” said Simon Thomas.

“In the next six months, we're going to have to pay near on a million pounds ourselves to get our own infrastructure put in to get the power to our building.”

Mr Thomas continued: “The local planning [system]... is basically not capable of supplying manufacturing businesses unless you're an extraordinary case.”

Huntingdonshire District Council, which handles planning applications in the area, was approached for comment.

A spokesman for Energy Networks Association, which represents the UK’s energy network operators, said: “Network Operators will deliver £31bn of investment over the next five years to improve grid infrastructure and help ensure the UK’s energy systems can meet the demands of the Net Zero transition, including connecting renewable generation schemes large and small.

“To reach our Net Zero targets, we need more than just investment as other issues remain, particularly around planning and regulation.

“In order to more quickly connect more renewable generation we need three things - a continued focus on innovation and flexibility, investment to enable network capacity in anticipation of future need, and a coordinated and accelerated planning system which brings together local and national ambitions.”

A Government spokesman said: "The government is committed to accelerating the build and capacity of electricity network infrastructure to meet the requirements of new connections, including commercial buildings and renewable generation.

“We will continue to work with Ofgem and Industry to address barriers to connecting to the electricity network and to accelerate Britain’s electricity connections."

Twitter Foes Call For Rupert Murdoch To Be Deported After Peddling Fox News Lies

Mary Papenfuss
Sat, February 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM MST·4 min read

Twitter critics are lining up to demand Australian-born right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported after undermining American democracy with a cascade of recently revealed Fox News lies about the 2020 presidential election.

Murdoch, whose media operations frequently rail against immigration, became an American citizen in 1985, which allowed him to circumvent a law barring foreign nationals from owning more than 20% of a U.S. broadcasting license.

(Fox News host Tucker Carlson had an ironic moment on the air just last year about the damage foreign-born billionaires can wreak in a nation.)

Despite Murdoch’s lucrative citizenship switch, he’s apparently no big fan of U.S. democracy. He and Fox News continued to peddle Donald Trump’s baseless claim of a fraudulent presidential election that news hosts and executives didn’t believe, according to a bombshell brief filed earlier this week.

Murdoch blasted a memorably unhinged press conference by Trump ally Rudy Giuliani and lawyer Sidney Powell after Trump’s election loss that bizarrely claimed voting machine software had been manipulated in a plot spearheaded by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who had been in the grave for seven years by then.

“Really crazy stuff. And damaging,” Murdoch wrote in a November 2020 text message, revealed in a brief filed Thursday by attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems. The company is suingFox News and its parent Fox Corporation for $1.6 billion over alleged defamation.

Carlson said in a message obtained by Dominion that Powell was “lying” about having proof of her wild claims and called Trump a “demonic force,” according to the brief. Fox executives were so worried about the danger Trump posed that they refused to allow him on Lou Dobbs’ program on Jan. 6, 2021, deeming that to do so would be “irresponsible,” the brief noted.

Yet despite that, Murdoch’s Fox continued to support Trump and his tale of a rigged election to pander to the former president’s supporters.

Now, his enemies are raging on Twitter to boot him out of the country.

Murdoch could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fox is defending itself in Dominion’s defamation case by arguing that the company has “cherry-picked quotes,” and that “freedom of the press and freedom of speech are fundamental rights in the Constitution.” But courts in the past have not always protected deliberate lying.

Dominion is arguing in its brief that Fox News hosts and executives did not believe Trump’s rigged election lie yet deliberately continued to peddle the story on the network, which Dominion claims reaches the bar for defamation.

NO SUCH THING AS AUTONOMOUS DRIVING

Tesla Driver Killed After Plowing Into Fire Truck Parked On California Freeway

Associated Press
Sat, February 18, 2023 

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) — A Tesla driver was killed and a passenger was critically injured Saturday when the car plowed into a fire truck that was parked on a Northern California freeway to shield a crew clearing another accident, fire officials said.

Four firefighters who were in the truck when it was struck on Interstate 680 were treated for minor injuries, said Tracie Dutter, assistant chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

The driver was declared dead at the scene, Dutter said. The car needed to be cut open to remove the passenger, who was taken to the hospital.

Photos showed the front end of the car was crushed and the $1.4 million ladder truck was damaged.

California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Lane said it was not clear whether the driver may have been intoxicated or whether the Tesla Model S was operating with automation or driving assistance features.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating how Tesla’s Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles parked on highways. At least 14 Teslas have crashed into emergency vehicles while using the system.

Dutter said the truck had its lights on and was parked diagonally on northbound lanes of the freeway to protect responders to an earlier accident that did not result in injuries.

The fatal accident occurred around 4 a.m., and it took several hours to clear the freeway. The firetruck had to be towed away.

The Model S was among the nearly 363,000 vehicles Tesla recalled on Thursday because of potential flaws in its “Full Self-Driving” system. While the recall is aimed at correcting possible problems at intersections and with speed limits, it comes amid a broader investigation by U.S. safety regulators into Tesla’s automated driving systems.

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