How the ultra wealthy have re-shaped the global discussion on climate change



07:51

Issued on: 21/02/2023 -

PERSPECTIVE © FRANCE 24

By:Stuart Norval

A new book critiques the juxtaposition of rich and powerful people preaching to the rest of us on climate change. Author and political scientist Édouard Morena looks at how the ultra wealthy have re-shaped the global discussion on climate change, often to suit their own needs, whilst ignoring more obvious ways to save the planet. Issues such as billionaires defending their use of private jets, or one of the world's largest oil producers hosting the next round of UN climate talks are among those under the microscope. Morena spoke to us on Perspective about his book "Fin du monde et Petits Fours", or "The end of the world and appetisers", which has just been published in French.

Google Could Face Tidal Wave of Legal Threats After Supreme Court Ruling

Story by Thomas Kika • Yesterday 

A forthcoming decision from the U.S. Supreme Court could have massive ramifications for legal liabilities regarding the internet, possibly resulting in a wave of legal threats against companies like Google.


Above, a representational image of Google logos reflected in a person's eye. 

© Leon Neal/Getty Images

As of Tuesday, the Court is now hearing oral arguments in the case of Gonzalez v. Google. The family of Nohemi Gonzalez is suing YouTube, the massively popular video-sharing site and a subsidiary of Google, after the 23-year-old college exchange student was gunned down by ISIS-affiliated gunmen in a Paris restaurant in late 2015.

The family has argued that YouTube's recommendation algorithm surfacing ISIS content effectively acted as a recruitment tool for the terrorist group, violating U.S. law.

The SCOTUS decision in the case would impact the fate of Section 230, a provision to U.S. law passed in 1996 that protects internet platforms from legal culpability related to the content that individuals share on them. Google has argued that the provision applies to this situation, while the Gonzalez family has countered that it should not apply to recommendation algorithms.

Newsweek

Gonzalez v. Google: What To Know As SCOTUS Hears Case Against Big Tech

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"If the Supreme Court limits Section 230 immunity based on how online platforms display or prioritize user-generated content, that would effectively eviscerate the immunity altogether," Sophia Cope, a senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in a statement to Newsweek.

"To mitigate this new legal exposure, platforms would take drastic steps to censor user speech or alter the services they provide to users," Cope continued.

"As we wrote in our amicus brief, 'The judicial interpretation of Section 230 that Petitioners seek would be detrimental to all users' speech online. It would incentivize online services to take down even more user-generated content, and would likely limit services' ability to provide essential tools that organize content for users,'" she added.

The law has also become a major sticking point for lawmakers on both ends of the political spectrum, with each keen to revise it in different ways and enact more hands-on regulation of digital content.

Democrats, like President Joe Biden, have argued that the law allows internet companies to dodge responsibility for hosting hateful and dangerous content.

Republicans, like former President Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress, have argued that the companies remove too much content and that they have done so with an alleged, but unproven, bias against conservatives.

Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google's general counsel, told The Washington Post that the SCOTUS review of the case would put the company and others at greater risk of costly legal battles, threatening the health of technological and business growth.

"It goes beyond just Google," DeLaine Prado said. "It really does impact the notion of American innovation."

Speaking at a press briefing, Mary B. McCord, the executive director for the Georgetown Law Center Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, said that it was unlikely that lawmakers could have foreseen the extent to which internet platforms could be abused when they drafted Section 230 in the '90s.

"It's implausible to think that Congress could have been thinking to cut off civil liability completely...for people who are victims of terrorism at the same time they were passing renewed and expanded legal authorities to combat terrorism," McCord said, according to the Post.

The Post also spoke to Jeff Kosseff, a cybersecurity law professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, who argued that giving the government too much control over internet content regulation could backfire.

"Once you give up power to the government over speech, you're not getting it back," Kosseff said in the Post article.

In her statement to Newsweek, Cope added that big tech companies would not be the only entities affected by strict changes to Section 230. It could have consequences all the way down to Twitter users retweeting things.

"It's also important to remember that Section 230 not only applies to the large social media platforms," Cope wrote. "It applies to any internet intermediary that connects content creators or speakers to audiences—this includes ISPs, web hosting companies, email providers, domain name registrars, and end-user services like review sites and discussion boards.

"So with a narrowed Section 230 immunity, all these companies would have to determine how to mitigate their legal risks for third-party content, either by censoring user speech or significantly altering what services they provide or how they provide those services, which at the end of the day would be bad for internet users."

Cope continued: "Section 230 also applies to users who themselves engage with third-party content, such as retweeting someone else's content or forwarding an email. Justice Barrett noted this more than once during today's oral argument."

While the Supreme Court could refine the interpretation of Section 230, only Congress maintains the ability to repeal or alter it. Several such proposals have been put forward, though none have yet been passed.

Updated 2/21/2023, 6:55 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Sophia Cope.

Oil and gas industry could slash methane emissions by 75% with barely a hit to income, says IEA

The global energy industry isn't doing enough to slash its methane emissions, says a report from the International Energy Agency.

The energy sector is the second largest methane emitter, after agriculture.
While methane is less present in the atmosphere and dissipates faster than CO2, it has about 85 times the warming effect.


An oil pumpjack operates on November 02, 2021 in Long Beach, California. The Biden administration pledged to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production today. In California, 35,000 oil and gas wells sit idle, many of which are unplugged and could leak methane gas. Scientists estimate that one-third of human-induced global warming is caused by methane. 

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Story by Catherine Clifford • CNBC -Yesterday 

The energy industry is not making sufficient efforts to reduce its methane emissions, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor to global warming. But while CO2 is 200 times more present in the atmosphere than methane and lasts a lot longer, methane's warming effects are around 85 times as strong, and it's contributed 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.

The energy sector is the second-largest source of human-caused methane, behind only agriculture, and was responsible for 40% of human-created methane emissions in 2022, the IEA says.

But much of the methane emitted by the energy industry could be stopped with existing technologies, "highlighting a lack of industry action on an issue that is often very cheap to address," the report said.

The global oil and gas industry would have to invest only 3% of the income it earned in 2022, $100 billion, to reduce its methane emissions by 75%, the report said. For the oil and gas industry, fixing methane emissions mostly comes down to finding and repairing leaks. The coal industry could capture methane from mines and then use it.

"Some progress is being made but that emissions are still far too high and not falling fast enough – especially as methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming. There is just no excuse," IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a written statement.

"The Nord Stream pipeline explosion last year released a huge amount of methane into the atmosphere. But normal oil and gas operations around the world release the same amount of methane as the Nord Stream explosion every single day," Birol said.

The IEA is a multigovernmental organization established in 1974 of OECD member countries after the oil crisis to help ensure global energy security and sustainability.

More than 150 countries have signed on to the Global Methane Pledge launched at the COP 26 conference in 2021 to address methane emissions. Those signatories represent 55% of anthropogenic methane emissions and 45% of methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry.

The danger of methane in contributing to global warming and the fact that it is fixable make the issue urgent, according to the IEA.

"The untamed release of methane in fossil fuel production is a problem that sometimes goes under the radar in public debate," Birol said.

"Unfortunately, it's not a new issue and emissions remain stubbornly high. Many companies saw hefty profits last year following a turbulent period for international oil and gas markets amid the global energy crisis. Fossil fuel producers need to step up and policy makers need to step in – and both must do so quickly."

'You have to be proactive': Liberals pitch 'just transition' planning for clean energy jobs

Story by Tyler Dawson • Yesterday 

EDMONTON — The federal government says in its newly released “just transition” plan that the shift to a green economy will create so many jobs there won’t be enough workers to fill them, but this isn’t likely to placate critics in Alberta, the province likely to be hit hardest by any decline in the oil and gas sector.


Canada is actively exploring new nuclear energy technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs). SUPPLIED© Provided by National Post

The plan, released Friday while the political world was paying attention to the report on the Liberals’ use of the Emergencies Act to quash the Freedom Convoy protests last year, is to guide the first two years of the transition — further plans will be released every five years after 2025.

While lacking many specifics, it outlines in broad terms the ways the federal government will help maintain and create energy jobs, as well as transfer workers to net-zero jobs as needed.

“Well, I can tell you, Vladimir Putin is smiling today,” said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Friday.

Poilievre said the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is driving away energy jobs and leading Canada to foreign dependence on oil and gas from dictatorships.

“The answer is to develop our resources here in Canada while incentivizing our companies to do so with the lowest possible emissions,” said Poilievre, who was speaking at a news conference on the Emergencies Act report.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pointed to the lack of information about the role of liquid natural gas as an emissions-reducing product (compared to coal and other, higher-emitting fuels).

“Implementing a federal plan of this magnitude in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction doesn’t merely require piecemeal ‘discussions’ with the provinces, it requires outright provincial approval and cooperation,” Smith said in a statement. “Alberta has not been involved in any such approvals, nor included in the development of the plan published today.”

The 32-page “Sustainable Jobs Plan” says if Canada plays its cards right, the clean energy economy will create so many jobs there may not be enough workers to fill them. But some of it will require the traditional oil and gas sectors to “aggressively” lower the greenhouse gas emissions produced as the fuels are extracted.

Charlie Angus, the NDP’s natural resources critic, welcomed the plan and committed to pushing for well-paying, union work.

“The question is whether or not the government will back up these positive words with the massive investments required to kick-start a clean energy future,” Angus said.

At this point, the plan is a plan for more plans, better data collection and further engagement across various groups and regions in Canada. It establishes frameworks and councils to continue the discussions; it’s light on figures and timelines, includes no new funding and doesn’t put a specific figure on just how many jobs might be created.

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, an analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, noted that many of the initiatives mentioned in the plan are already underway.

“There’s very little here that’s completely new, but it is the first time that kind of pulled all the pieces together into one place,” Mertins-Kirkwood said.

Earlier this year, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the Liberals would introduce legislation to guide the “just transition.”

The term itself refers to the idea that governments guide workers displaced by environmental policies towards new jobs. It has, however, taken on a somewhat different meaning in Alberta, where politicians have suggested it’s a plan to shut down the oil and gas sector and impoverish Canada’s richest province.

Smith has said the plan “isn’t about a transition at all.”

“It’s about eliminating entire sectors of our economy and hundreds of thousands of good Alberta jobs deemed too ‘dirty’ by elites in Ottawa,” she said.

Alberta’s government has attempted to establish a dialogue on what a transition might look like. (Indeed, Mertins-Kirkwood noted that the plan actually plays down the energy transition.)

The plan released Friday is the first time the government has laid out in some detail what it proposes to do, including renaming the idea from the “just transition” plan — a concept that has been criticized for implying those working in oil and gas are in some way are unjust — to the “sustainable jobs plan.”

Most Canadians don't trust Liberals' plan for 'just transition' away from oil: poll

Everything we know about Canada's 'just transition' plan for oil and gas workers

“The term ‘sustainable jobs’ also reflects the concept of decent, well-paying, high-quality jobs that can support workers and their families over time and includes such elements as fair income, job security, social protection, and social dialogue,” the report says.

Perhaps notably, no salary figures are given for what constitutes “well-paying.” For many in the oil and gas sector, who can clear $200,000 a year, looking to so-called green jobs could entail a major income cut.

Citing Clean Energy Canada, a think-tank at Simon Fraser University, the report notes that jobs in the green energy sector could grow at 3.4 per cent annually over the next decade — quadruple the growth rate of other parts of the economy.

The report also notes that there will still be a demand for conventional oil and gas products by 2050, though at a greatly reduced level from today, according to International Energy Agency predictions.

While the plan contemplates training and re-training programs, it also acknowledges that the skills workers currently have in, say, a refinery, could transfer smoothly to an emerging economy. Whether the government can facilitate such a major economic shift remains to be seen, indeed, polling shows that 56 per cent of Canadians are skeptical that it can.

Where Canada has a decent record is in industrial policy; the oilsands, for example, were backed by considerable government money and research to attain commercial viability.

Yet, that doesn’t mean we’re good at other aspects of such a transition. Various programs of similar sorts have been rolled out in recent decades, from the millions of dollars spent to retrain Newfoundland fishermen in the 1990s to more recent attempts to retrain coal miners.

“Canada has a really poor record at managing economic transitions, especially natural resource transitions,” said Mertins-Kirkwood. “That’s why, I think, so many workers today are skeptical of transition language.”

The issue, he said, is that governments have waited until an economic bust before scrambling to put together training programs and economic diversification.

“To actually make a transition work, you have to be proactive,” said Mertins-Kirkwood. “Does this new plan deliver on that? It is definitely proactive on the training side, which is good. But I don’t see this plan as being proactive on the economic diversification side.”

While the issue has received substantial attention in Alberta, it has yet to register with many Canadians. Recent polling shows that 84 per cent of Canadians have never heard of the “just transition” plan.

“The biggest problem we face now is not that it can’t be done, it’s can it be done faster, given the climate imperative?” said Mertins-Kirkwood.

STATE CAPITALI$M 

Proposed hydrogen-heated community gets $2M for feasibility study

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada • Yesterday 

ATCO Gas is getting $2 million to study the feasibility of supplying hydrogen to heat new homes in a proposed development in Strathcona County.


The Bremner community is proposed to be Canada's first all-hydrogen community

© Nathan Gross/CBC

ATCO and Qualico have teamed up to build houses in the proposed Bremner community. Three hundred homes are proposed for construction in the first two stages of development. The area is projected to eventually house 85,000 people.

If it proceeds, the proponents say the community will be the first in Canada to have its heat and hot water fully provided by hydrogen.

Funding for the feasibility study was announced Tuesday by Alberta Innovates. The provincial Crown Corporation is providing $20 million to 18 proposals through its Hydrogen Centre of Excellence.

Jason Sharpe, president of ATCO Gas, said the study would look at infrastructure needed to get hydrogen into homes, regulations and how it would be priced for consumers.

Related video: Alberta’s rural communities could benefit from renewable energy transition    (Global News)   Duration 5:13   View on Watch

"Right now the rules are not clear," Sharpe said. "So part of this study is to provide recommendations to government on how this could be done so that we would know the cost for someone who's buying one of those homes."

The development is expected to roll out in stages. Qualico will start preparing the site this spring with construction starting in 2024. People will start moving into their new homes in 2024.

Brad Armstrong, Qualico's vice president of community development for northern Alberta, said about 150 homes are planned for the first two stages. The development will have a mix of housing, including single family homes, townhouses and apartments.

"If we're successful, this will be the first pure hydrogen community in Canada," Armstrong said.

"We believe that the demand is going to be there."

Other projects receiving funding from the Hydrogen Centre of Excellence are a mix of industry and academic proposals.

Inter Pipeline Ltd. is receiving $2 million for a feasibility study into the Heartland Ammonia Project. The University of Alberta is getting $500,000 to look at hydrogen storage in Alberta's salt caverns. Innovative Fuel Systems Ltd. is receiving $2 million for a proposal to develop hydrogen dual fuel for heavy duty long-haul vehicles.

Meteor Fireball Explodes Over 7 U.S. States

And Ontario : 'Green Pulsing Ball of Light'

Story by Jess Thomson • Yesterday 

Hundreds of people across the northern United States and Canada saw a fireball crashing through the night sky on Sunday night, lighting up the dark for a split second.

Watch Fireball Crash Through Night Sky Over Midwest

Duration 0:26   View on Watch

Reports of the fireball came from 197 residents across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ontario at around 9:51 p.m. local time on Sunday, February 19, according to the American Meteor Society.

Videos taken across the region show the fireball falling through the sky, flaring brightly before fading into darkness.

"My 8 year old son also [saw] it, and it was so bizarre it scared him," wrote one observer in Indiana on the American Meteor Society website.

"We both saw a quickly moving green pulsing ball of light that was very vibrant then faint then bright again all the while traveling along the same trajectory, bigger at first then the size diminishing as it went away from us on its path. It was definitely not a plane flying low. It was moving away from the airport, not towards it. A plane flying that close would have moved more slowly in the sky and probably be on its way to crashing. It was not at all like the meteors (Perseid meteor showers) we have watched yearly since 2020 nor like any of the dozens of "shooting stars" I've seen in my lifetime (I'm 46)."

"It was awesome and now I have so many questions. My husband thought he smelled ozone a few minutes after seeing it but I didn't smell anything," wrote another in Ontario, Canada.

Fireballs like this are caused by meteoroids burning up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. Meteoroids are chunks of rock and ice from space, ranging massively in size from a tiny grain of dust to many feet across. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere at high speeds—which can range between 25,000 miles per hour and 160,000 miles per hour—the friction with the gas causes it to burn up, becoming a meteor.

"As it comes into Earth's atmosphere at high speed (above 12 kilometers [7.5 miles] per second), it pushes the air in front of it, causing that air to become superheated (kind of like a shockwave), which in turn causes the surface of the rock to 'ablate'. Basically, the very surface layer gets super-heated, and vaporized," Jonti Horner, an astrophysics professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, previously told Newsweek.

"As the thing continues to push through the atmosphere, it gets whittled away from the outside in by this ablation process—until friction with the atmosphere slows it to subsonic speeds."

Usually, only around 5 percent of the original meteoroid makes it to the Earth's surface, with the rest being vaporized during its dramatic descent. Meteors around the size of a softball can result in fireballs so bright that they are briefly as luminous as the full moon in the night sky.

This meteor was also bright enough to shine through the clouds, according to eyewitnesses.

"It was partially overcast, but it was still significantly bright through the light cloud cover," wrote another observer from Brillion, Wisconsin.



A picture of the meteor taken in Vicksburg, Michigan. Spalding Allsky Camera Network, Node73 - Pete Mumbower© Spalding Allsky Camera Network, Node73 - Pete Mumbower

"They also heat the atmosphere, so much so that it makes the path they follow glow," Mark Gallaway, an astronomer and science educator at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, previously told Newsweek. "It is this glow you see, as the meteor disintegrates, at something like 30 to 59 miles up. Larger objects, say the size of a pebble, will produce a bright meteor known as a fireball."

NASA estimates that about 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falls to Earth each day, but we only see the larger meteors, and those that fall during the night.

Most meteors have very little impact on people living nearby due to their smaller size. One example of a larger meteor that caused a significant degree of damage was the Chelyabinsk meteor that hit Russia on February 15, 2013.

This meteor is thought to have been around 55 feet long, causing large shockwaves as it collided with the Earth's atmosphere at roughly 43,000 miles per hour and exploded. The explosion was estimated to be as powerful as the blast created by between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of TNT, and resulted in widespread damage and over 1,600 injuries mostly due to broken glass, according to NASA.

"The Chelyabinsk impact in Russia exactly 10 years ago, was another story. It was about 17 meters across," Hadrien Devillepoix, a research associate at the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University in Perth, Australia, previously told Newsweek.

"The shock wave from Chelyabinsk luckily didn't kill anyone, but injured many because of broken windows due to the shock wave."

While this most recent fireball wasn't quite as dramatic as the Chelyabinsk meteor 10 years ago, it was still an impressive sight.

"This was huge and so bright. I have never seen anything like it," wrote one observer from Bucyrus, Ohio.

German Doctors Are Attempting to Reverse Death and Resurrect Humans
Story by Tim Newcomb • 

German doctors are attempting to reverse death and bring dead bodies back to life, starting with 10 humans. Will it work?© gremlin - Getty Images

A company called Tomorrow Biostasis is focusing on human cryopreservation in the hopes it can eventually reverse death.

The new Berlin startup has already preserved the bodies of about 10 deceased humans.
Liquid nitrogen is the main ingredient used to ensure cryopreservation.

The waiting list for Tomorrow Biostasis, a cryopreservation startup based in Germany, is in the hundreds. And the company already has about 10 cases with some bodies preserved in a lab. What comes next is the real issue.

According to a report from Tech.Eu, the company’s “standby ambulance” has already been busy, with cofounder Emil Kendziorra working to launch Europe’s first cryogenics company (there are already a handful of them in the United States). Kendziorra’s goal: As soon as somebody dies, Tomorrow Biostasis immediately responds to preserve the person’s body and/or brain in a state of stasis. Then, once future advances materialize, the company will treat and reverse the person’s original cause of death and bring them back from the dead to enjoy a life extension.

Related video: Scientists attempting to bring humans back to life after death (Straight Arrow News)

Duration 1:14  View on Watch

Kendziorra says his company has “about 10 people” already cryopreserved for training purposes and hundreds more on the waiting list. The company’s typical clientele are 36 years old on average and tend to work in tech, which is perhaps the least surprising development of all. A few of these people just want their brain preserved, thinking their future selves may prefer a new 3D-printed body... or maybe not even a body at all.

When the bodies get transported to Rafz, Switzerland for long-term storage at the European Biostasis Foundation—the process is technically considered a scientific body donation, to make it legal—they get cooled to -196 degrees Celsius and placed inside an insulated tank with liquid nitrogen to lock in the preservation.

Of course, waiting for medical advancement to progress to the point it can reverse what caused your death isn’t the only hurdle in this entire cryopreservation concept. There’s still the small issue of nobody knowing how to actually revive a dead cryopreserved human. Sure, they can freeze the brain to preserve cells and tissues, but bringing a previously dead brain back to life with regular function and memories isn’t quite a thing in our world—yet.

And those are just the big questions. There are also plenty of smaller issues, such as who makes the decision on the revival, because, well, you can’t freeze up on the right timing.

Editorial: Abortion pill extremists are disingenuous absolutists

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune
Mon, February 20, 2023 at 4:00 AM MST·4 min read

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade last year, freeing states to limit or ban abortion, we knew abortion pills would become a target.

What’s the point of a law, after all, that can be circumvented by using a few pills shipped to private homes anywhere in the country after a simple telehealth or online appointment?

Sure enough, anti-abortion activists and partisan judges are proceeding on multiple fronts to make it harder to safely end pregnancies via medication, currently, and rightly, America’s most popular method.

This unsettled time in the law poses big risks for the rights of individuals and businesses. In their zeal to end abortion, its opponents could undermine the federal government’s ability to regulate commerce, ensure food and drugs are safe and maintain privacy on the internet.

One of the most egregious examples is a lawsuit proceeding in Amarillo, Texas, where an anti-abortion group has teamed up with a like-minded federal judge to attack government oversight essential to the smooth workings of a “United” States. It’s no accident that the lawsuit was filed in Amarillo, where, by rule, nearly all federal cases get assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.

Before his appointment to the bench by then-President Donald Trump, Kacsmaryk championed legal assaults on LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and contraception. The Supreme Court stopped an early ruling he made against immigrants seeking asylum, which he followed up with another, and he also has ruled in support of discrimination against transgender Americans.

Plaintiffs routinely file lawsuits in venues likely to favor their interests. With the country increasingly divided, that legal gamesmanship has become more pernicious, as plaintiffs sometimes can pick not just a location but a specific judge. It damages Americans’ sense of justice when a “Trump judge” can always be counted on to rule one way on a culture war issue, and a judge appointed by Democrats another. That’s especially true when long-established practices affecting the entire country are being swept aside.

In this case, an anti-abortion group is asking Kacsmaryk to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2000 of mifepristone for medication-induced abortion, claiming the FDA improperly fast-tracked its review more than two decades ago. On Feb. 13, 22 Republican state attorneys general filed a brief urging Kacsmaryk to find against the FDA, which would likely result in a national ban on the drug, at least until higher courts could adjudicate further.

Contrary to the wilder claims of pro-abortion rights activists, a ruling against the FDA would not end abortion nationwide, or even necessarily stop abortion by medication. The current gold-standard treatment involves two drugs, and where mifepristone is unavailable or too costly, abortions are conducted with just one drug, misoprostol, which is unlikely to be similarly banned because it’s used to treat ulcers and other conditions unrelated to abortion.

The most cynical aspect of the lawsuit is its false claim that mifepristone is unsafe, and women need to be protected from it. The anti-abortion activists behind this litigation couldn’t care less about the health and welfare of women who want the pill for abortions. Their goal is to set up as many roadblocks as possible, no matter the suffering their tactics might cause to those most directly involved.

Authorities such as Chicago’s American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have declared mifepristone safe. Millions of women have taken the drug around the world, experiencing fewer problems than with more invasive surgical abortions. Further, eliminating the two-drug regimen puts those who take just the one remaining drug at a higher risk of painful cramps and other unpleasant side effects, though the outcome is the same: A surgery-free, safe and effective abortion.

This page has long supported a woman’s right to choose, grounded in our belief in her autonomy over her body and our commitment to individual freedoms. We accept that with Roe gone, each state can take its own path on this divisive issue, with some imposing bans that cruelly endanger the health of pregnant women. Extreme efforts to enforce these bans should worry everyone, no matter their views on abortion.

Does anybody seriously believe the country would be better off if food and drugs were regulated by Texas or other individual states, instead of the FDA? What about state laws targeting people who go online to research abortions, or any other topic that far-right lawmakers and judges might find objectionable? Should remote medical appointments and mail-order pharmaceuticals be subject to onerous restrictions aimed at preventing one controversial procedure? Should the pharmacies at Walgreens and CVS be turned into battlegrounds, and companies such as Danco Laboratories, which makes the branded version of mifepristone, be prevented from selling safe products they’ve invested in for years?

Anti-abortion activists have made their intentions clear: Stop abortion at all costs, even if that means suspending medical ethics and disrupting the smooth functioning of American society.

Sri Lankan police disperse protesters demanding election





Sri LankaSupporters of Sri Lanka's main opposition shout slogans after police stopped their march to protest against the postponement of local government election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
Mon, February 20, 2023

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan police fired tear gas and a water cannon at opposition supporters who marched in the capital on Monday demanding that the government hold next month’s local council elections as planned.

Several thousand backers of Samagi Jana Balawegaya, or United Peoples’ Power party, shouted anti-government slogans as they marched toward the center of Colombo, where government offices and the president's office and residence are located. They were blocked by police, who fired tear gas and a water cannon to disperse them.

The March 9 elections, postponed from last year because of economic and political turmoil, won't affect the government's majority in the 225-seat Parliament. But they are widely seen as a test of the popularity of the governing coalition, which has been criticized for raising taxes and electricity charges.

Election officials have reportedly said they have not received money from the treasury to conduct the voting, and opposition lawmakers accuse the government of attempting to further delay the elections.

Governing coalition lawmakers say it isn't an appropriate time to hold elections because the country is still recovering from an economic crisis. Government spokespeople say the government is struggling to find enough money to pay the salaries of civil servants and conduct other administrative functions.

Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt and has suspended repayment of foreign debt pending the outcome of talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package. The country’s foreign debt exceeds $51 billion, of which $28 billion must be repaid by 2027.

A currency crisis has also led to shortages of essential items such as food, fuel, medicine and cooking gas. Massive protests last year forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has begun to stabilize the economic situation by reducing shortages, enabling schools and offices to operate. To cope with funding shortages, the government has announced a 6% budgetary cut for each ministry. It also plans to downsize the military, which had swelled to more than 200,000 personnel due to a long civil war.

Emmanuel Macron tells French: you won't like it, but you all have to work longer

Vivian Song
Tue, February 21, 2023 

Emmanuel Macron visits an early morning market, saying: 'If we want to preserve a pay-as-you-go system, we have to work longer' - Benoit Tessier/AFP via Getty Images

Emmanuel Macron has visited an early morning market to extol the value of hard work and getting up early, as he launched a public relations campaign to build support for his controversial pension reforms.

The French president chatted with butchers and cheesemongers at the Rungis International Market, one of the world’s largest wholesale markets, as part of a public messaging campaign aimed at recognising the country’s hardest workers.

Mr Macron defended his reforms, which raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, but admitted that working longer “doesn’t make anyone happy”.

“As we are living longer, there is no miracle. If we want to preserve a pay-as-you-go system, we have to work longer. I’m not saying it makes us happy, it doesn’t make anyone happy,” he said.


Appealing to the French people’s good “common sense”, Mr Macron reiterated that in order to address pension deficits in the future “we have to work a little longer”.

He added: “Over a reassuring lie, I prefer the anger-raising truth.”

The 45-year-old posed with a chicken carcass and donned a white butcher’s apron with a badge saying “Love meat, eat better”.

Mr Macron spoke to butchers at cheesemongers at the Rungis International Market - Benoit Tessier/AFP via Getty Images

One butcher, José Graca, 54, said he wanted to retire as soon as possible to “take advantage of my grandchildren”.

“Sixty is reasonable to retire,” he added, saying he wanted to “make young people work”.

The Rungis visit marks the first time the president has made a public appearance in relation to the pension reforms since they were unveiled last month.

The Bill was discussed in the lower parliament during two weeks of tumultuous and unproductive debates, hampered by 20,000 amendments put forth by the opposition parties. It will be examined in the Senate without a vote next month.

Mr Macron openly acknowledged that the PR visit is modelled upon the strategy of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, whose 2007 presidential campaign also honoured the “France which gets up early” with a visit to the Rungis market.

The French president faces widespread opposition to his pension reforms - Benoit Tessier/AFP via Getty Images

In response to a veal butcher who complained that France’s generous social welfare programs were to blame for the shortage of manpower, Mr Macron said: “I do not believe we need fewer social services. Work must continue to finance the system.”

During his four-hour visit, Mr Macron reiterated his message about the need to work longer in order to create more wealth for the country and fund ailing health and education systems.

The president also spoke about the need to re-examine the definition of work in France.

“The real debate that we must have in society is work,” he said. “It is work that allows us to build our future, that of our family.”

He added that it must continue to be better paid and that people “must continue to adapt careers”.

Mr Macron’s next pension-related public appearance is set for this weekend at France’s largest agricultural salon in Paris.