ROE WAS ABOUT RIGHT TO PRIVACY
Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute abortion seekers

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Sat, March 4, 2023 

Marianne Ayala/Insider

Police make requests for social media user data to aid prosecution after a crime has been committed.


Sometimes, the crime is abortion and social apps are turning over user chat logs and search history.

One legal expert said social platforms may cooperate with police even if not legally required to.

As abortion bans across the nation are implemented and enforced, law enforcement is turning to social media platforms to build cases to prosecute women seeking abortions or abortion-inducing medication – and online platforms like Google and Facebook are helping.

This spring, a woman named Jessica Burgess and her daughter will stand trial in Nebraska for performing an illegal abortion — with a key piece of evidence provided by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Burgess allegedly helped her daughter find and take pills that would induce an abortion. The teenage Burgess also faces charges for allegedly illegally disposing of the fetus' remains.

TechCrunch reported internal chat logs were provided to law enforcement officers by the social media company, which indicated the pair had discussed their plan to find the medication through the app.

Meta said in a statement regarding the Nebraska incident that it responded to "valid legal warrants from local law enforcement" prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned nationwide abortion rights and allowed for bans in some states.

And though the warrants Meta responded to in this case "did not mention abortion" — since law enforcement had requested the chat logs while investigating the teen's disposal of the remains, which incidentally revealed the discussion of abortion pills — the subsequent charges reveal how data released by social media companies can be used to prosecute people for abortion, even when they are being investigated for other reasons.
Pharmacies sharing data

An investigation by ProPublica found online pharmacies that sell abortion medication such as mifepristone and misoprostol are sharing sensitive data, including users' web addresses, relative location, and search data, with Google and other third-party sites — which allows the data to be recoverable through law enforcement requests.

ProPublica found similar web trackers that capture user data on the sites of at least nine online pharmacies that offer abortion pills by mail, including Abortion Ease, BestAbortionPill.com, PrivacyPillRX, PillsOnlineRX, Secure Abortion Pills, AbortionRx, Generic Abortion Pills, Abortion Privacy, and Online Abortion Pill Rx.

None of the pharmacies immediately responded to Insider's requests for comment.

Representatives for the FBI told Insider they were "unable to accommodate" Insider's detailed request for information about the criteria required for officers to issue a request for a civilian's social media or internet history, what information is generally turned over to them in the pursuit of such information, and what channels officers used to make those requests.

Representatives for Google and the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments, two of the largest police forces in the country, did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

"We comply with government requests for user information only where we have a good-faith belief that the law requires us to do so," a spokesperson for Meta told Insider. "In addition, we assess whether a request is consistent with internationally recognized standards on human rights, including due process, privacy, free expression and the rule of law. When we do comply, we only produce information that is narrowly tailored to that request. If we determine that a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back and will fight in court, if necessary. We do not provide governments with 'back doors' to people's information."

According to internal statistics provided by Meta, the company complies with government requests for user data more than 70% of the time and receives more than 400,000 requests per year.

"Certainly, we expect that social media companies are gonna cooperate with law enforcement when they make legitimate information requests, we need them to do that," Eric Goldman, law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and co-director of the school's High Tech Law Institute, told Insider. "But we also know that social media isn't likely to stand up to illegitimate law enforcement requests, because of the fact that they fear their own liability, or because of the fact that it's just too costly to stand up."

Goldman indicated examples where internet services affirmatively go to court to protect user interest, "but those are the exceptions."

"There's thousands of requests for every one of those cases, and there's thousands of other decisions that the company made to just turn over the data because it's just easier quicker that way," Goldman said. "So law enforcement knows that they can make requests of social media, including court requests that do not comply with law, and expect to get most of them honored simply because that is the path of least resistance for the social media services."
No incentive to protect privacy

While cases against people seeking abortions are increasingly being informed by user data provided by social media companies, those aren't the only prosecutions being built off of what people share online.

Public social media posts can be used to build cases against people for major cases including child abuse and murder, as well as against less serious incidents that could have first amendment implications, such as jokesters who tweeted threats against airlines and memes interpreted by the DOJ as election interference.

Private content by users — such as location data or messages — requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before it can be turned over.

But "social media companies don't really have incentives to protect privacy," Sharon Docter, PhD, JD, and professor of legal issues and new media at California Lutheran University, told Insider. She said because the platforms themselves are unlikely to prioritize user privacy, the burden to do so falls on the individual user.

"Users of social media need to be concerned about privacy, and that users really need to think through the fact that their digital footprint might potentially be available to law enforcement if there's a valid search warrant," Docter added. "And they should do all they can really to protect their privacy, by looking into sending encrypted messages, by making sure their location data is off, by engaging in any efforts that they can to understand the privacy policies of the platforms that they use."

Expecting social media companies to change their policies or standardize encryption is unlikely, Docter and Goldman told Insider, since they aren't incentivized by law or user pressure to do so. However, overly broad requests made by the government are the key point of the problem, Goldman noted — not that social media is cooperating with law enforcement in the first place.

"All the angst directed social media services for being a pawn in law enforcement's game seems misdirected to me. Social media is in fact a pawn in that game," Goldman told Insider, adding people often don't want to get mad at law enforcement or the government for overreaching and instead get angry at Facebook or Google for complying with sometimes illegal requests.

"We say 'law enforcement is just trying to do their job,' right, and 'if they get some wrong along the way, but they get the bad guys, you know, the ends justify the means,'" Goldman added. "It's so tempting to give benefit of the doubt to law enforcement, and that's why it's so hard for us to confront the reality: maybe there are times they don't deserve that benefit."

Shortage of Metals for EVs Is Rising Up the Agenda in Automakers’ C-Suites




Danny Lee, David Stringer and Jacob Lorinc
Fri, March 3, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- The merry-go-round of private meetings at an annual mining industry conference at Florida’s Hollywood Beach had a cast of new faces this year: auto sector executives increasingly anxious about surging prices and tighter supply of metals used in electric vehicle batteries.

Tesla Inc., Ford Motor Co. and Mercedes-Benz Group AG were among automakers which sent senior staff to mingle with about 1,500 delegates at the BMO Global Metals & Mining Conference, an event normally attended mainly by iron ore and aluminum producers. Their presence underscores the growing popularity of battery-powered cars, helped by a global push toward clean energy, which is estimated to require $10 trillion worth of metals through 2050, according to BloombergNEF.

Car producers “had room-to-room meetings with a lot of companies, like ourselves, trying to understand how to address their own supply chain,” said Trent Mell, an attendee and chief executive officer of Electra Battery Materials Corp., a Toronto-based developer of mining and refining projects. Auto companies have recently expanded their teams and are now filling rooms with specialists in metals like lithium — the metal that’s ubiquitous in electric car batteries — and manganese, or in battery recycling, he said. “Once you might have had one or two people dealing with raw materials procurement.”

Availability and costs of crucial battery materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel have been key concerns for years among EV makers trying to build out their electric lineups. The issue has gained more urgency in recent months due to rising competition to strike supply pacts with miners and project developers and by wild swings in raw material costs. The spot value of lithium consumption alone surged to about $35 billion in 2022, from $3 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Lithium “was a meaningful source of cost increase,” for Tesla in the final quarter of 2022, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said in January. While a key lithium benchmark has tumbled almost a third this year, prices remain 590% higher than at the start of 2021.

Volvo Car AB, Nio Inc. and Jeep-maker Stellantis NV have also said they’re being affected by the impact of higher raw material prices, and some are looking for new deals with suppliers to tie-up potential sources of metals. Like others, EV maker Rivian Automotive Inc. is spending a lot of time examining potential new deal structures with suppliers, and this “could involve ownership positions” in mining assets, CEO RJ Scaringe said on a Feb. 28 earnings call.

General Motors Co. last year struck a prepayment deal for lithium, while Ford Motor Co. offered a loan to help fund a mine project.

“Investing in these raw materials provides a way for automakers to control margins along the supply chain and ensure they remain competitive,” said Andrew Miller, chief operating officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an industry data provider. “Raw materials are now the largest cost driver for a battery.”

Automakers are also getting involved in the development of new mining projects.

GM added a $650 million stake in Lithium Americas Corp. to help deliver a mine in Nevada, and has considered buying an interest in Brazilian giant Vale SA’s base metals unit. Tesla, which is constructing a metal refinery in Corpus Cristi, Texas, has studied a takeover of miner Sigma Lithium Corp. The world’s No. 2 miner Rio Tinto Group is hunting for lithium deals, but expects to be outbid by car producers, CEO Jakob Stausholm said last month.

Car manufacturers are also putting more senior managers, rather than junior procurement executives, in charge of discussions over metals, according to Kent Masters, CEO of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Albemarle Corp., one of the world’s top lithium suppliers.

“It’s obviously become a more critical issue for OEMs,” Masters told the Florida conference, organized by Bank of Montreal. “We’ve been able to change the level at which we interact with those customers, and they’re investing significant amounts of money in electric vehicles.”

Read more: Musk Sees Lithium Refining Limitation as Tesla to Begin Output

Volkswagen AG has pledged to boost cooperation with Canada’s mining sector, formed a joint venture with Belgium-based materials supplier Umicore SA and has a deal with would-be lithium supplier Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. which aims to develop an operation in Germany.

VW is “sounding out the market” and is in talks with “many potential partners” on strategic raw materials, according to a spokesperson. “Various instruments are possible, from long-term agreements to streaming deals and equity investments,” the person said. Hedging of commodities prices is likely an important tool to cope with rising raw material costs, according to the group’s CFO Arno Antlitz.

About $265.5 billion has been invested in developing EVs since 2018 but only $40 billion on raw materials, according to Battery Materials Review, which tracks investment in the sector.

Even so, some said moves by car manufacturers to buy directly into metals could be doomed by their lack of expertise in mining and dismal record on acquisitions, according to Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s head of commodities.

“It always ends in tears,” he told Bloomberg Radio. “It requires an expertise that is very different than producing cars.”

--With assistance from Yvonne Yue Li, Monica Raymunt, Annie Lee, Mark Burton and Keith Naughton.

Twitter revenue plunged in December as advertisers stayed away after Elon Musk's takeover, report says

Stephanie Stacey
Sat, March 4, 2023 

Elon Musk has been trying to boost Twitter's faltering revenues.Getty Images

Twitter revenues fell about 40% in December versus the same month in 2021, per Wall Street Journal.


The slide came after many advertisers slashed spending following Elon Musk's takeover last October.


Twitter's cost-cutting strategies might also be driving away advertisers, The Information reported.

Twitter's revenues plunged in December after advertisers avoided the social media platform in the wake of Elon Musk's controversial takeover, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Unnamed sources said the company reported a 40% decline in both total revenue and adjusted profits compared with December 2021.

That came after half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers pulled out in the first month after Musk's controversial takeover, per Media Matters. More than two thirds of Twitter's top 100 advertisers before the acquisition had not returned by late February, according to Pathmatics, The Journal reported.



Twitter has tried to lure advertisers back by taking steps including lifting its three-year ban on political advertising.

Some big names including Apple and Amazon have returned to the platform, but they're again under threat due to Twitter's controversial cost-cutting strategies.

Twitter has not made payments to certain suppliers, some of which are also the platform's biggest advertisers, The Information reported. Staff were recently told that Amazon had threatened to withhold payment for its ads because Twitter had not paid its Amazon Web Services bill for several months, per the report.

Twitter's financial challenges go beyond advertisers. It also made its first interest payment on the $13 billion loan that helped fund Musk's $44 billion takeover last October, per The Journal. Annual interest payments are expected to exceed $1 billion on loans that have rates as high as 15%.

Faced with faltering advertising spend, Musk has tried to bolster revenues by promoting Twitter Blue, its paid subscription product, and monetize a number of features.

Twitter Blue, introduced last November, allows users to pay between $8 and $11 a month for the blue checkmarks that were previously reserved for high-profile figures. In its latest push for subscriptions, Twitter said it was restricting the use of text messages for two-factor authentication to paying subscribers.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider made outside normal working hours.

As momentum for new climate change legislation stalls in Washington, states look to pick up the slack

States are building on federal climate action by instituting renewable energy standards and new clean car rules.

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Fri, March 3, 2023 

Climate activists in New York City, Oct. 29, 2022. 

(Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

With Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, new federal climate change legislation is unlikely to come out of Washington, D.C., this year. But buoyed by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last fall, a number of large states are currently working on ambitious actions designed to address rising global temperatures.

“We’re excited by the progress that we’ve seen so far in the year,” Justin Balik, state program director of Evergreen Action, told Yahoo News.

The flurry of activity has been led by governors, many of whom issue their proposed annual budgets in the early months of the year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul speaking in New York City last month. 

(NDZ/Star Max/IPx 2023 via AP)
New York is fighting climate change on multiple fronts

On Feb. 1, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, proposed several initiatives to boost clean energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The most significant measure Hochul took was directing state agencies to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions that will gradually decline, reaching an 85% reduction from 1990 levels by 2050. Large polluters like oil companies would have to buy permission, in the form of credits, to create their emissions. The plan could generate $3 billion per year in revenue, with two-thirds going to New Yorkers as rebates and the rest being spent on state climate programs.

Hochul also asked the state Legislature to pass a raft of investments aimed at reducing emissions, including $400 million to help low-income residents with utility bills, in part through helping them retrofit their homes for energy efficiency and helping them switch from gas or oil burners to electric heating systems. The governor also embraced a proposal in the Legislature that would require the New York Power Authority, a publicly owned utility, to expand its renewable energy production.

“We are the first generation to feel the effects of climate change and the last generation to be able to do anything about it,” Hochul said in a statement that accompanied the announcement.

The governor is also offering billions of dollars in aid to the state’s struggling mass transit system, a move New York environmentalists praised for helping to reduce the number of gasoline-burning vehicles on the road.

“We cannot drive our way out of the climate crisis, which means we need a fiscally stable mass transit system,” said Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, in a statement on Hochul’s budget.

However, one of Hochul’s ideas has already triggered significant backlash from conservatives — and chefs: banning fossil fuel infrastructure, including lines that power gas stoves and furnaces, in new buildings. According to a Siena College poll, 53% of New Yorkers oppose the proposal and just 39% support it. Even though Hochul, a Democrat, proposed the same policy last year without generating much controversy, it has been caught up in the current culture war over gas stoves. While some high-profile eco-conscious chefs support switching to electric stoves, other restaurateurs have complained that they cannot cook certain dishes on electric ranges, with one telling the New York Post the gas ban “is just a total farce to appease the woke movement.”

A climate change protest on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

 (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Clean energy standards

States are the primary regulators of energy utilities, and 36 of them, plus Washington, D.C., already have some goal for making a portion of their electricity from clean sources such as wind, solar, nuclear or hydropower.

Now, with the cost of renewables like wind and solar steadily dropping, some states are considering moving up their timeline or increasing the percentage of their power that comes from clean sources.

In a Feb. 15 address, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat, laid out a set of steps the state will take to cut its climate pollution. The most significant is an executive order moving up New Jersey’s target of relying 100% on clean energy from 2050 to 2035. Other executive orders speed the installation of high-efficiency electric heating and cooling systems in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties by 2030 and enhance flood protection in coastal and riverside areas.

In Minnesota, where Democrats regained control of the state Senate in 2022, Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill in February that mandates that the state use only clean energy by 2040.

Also in mid-February, Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills proposed a bill to move up her state’s 100% clean energy target from 2050 to 2040. Mills’s administration argues that it is economically sensible as wind and solar costs are dropping while natural gas prices have become more volatile due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the increase in exportation of gas from the U.S.

“The time has come to be bolder,” Mills said in a speech to the Legislature. “By accelerating our pace toward 100% clean energy, we will reduce costs for Maine people, create new jobs and career opportunities that strengthen our economy and protect us from the ravages of climate change.”

Maine, like New Jersey, currently gets about half of its electricity from low-carbon sources. And, like New Jersey, Democrats control both houses of the state legislature, giving the bill a good chance of passing. But Maine Republicans argue that it will increase costs for consumers.

“I think it’s a great idea if you hate poor people,” House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham quipped to the Portland Press Herald. “Otherwise coming up with arbitrary goals before affordable alternatives exist is dangerous.”

Similar divides are seen in states with split partisan control. In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed new spending on clean energy, but Republicans — who control the state Legislature — say that a state budget surplus should be returned to taxpayers instead of new spending.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, right.

 (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Putting the Inflation Reduction Act into practice

States are also building out the climate provisions the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden signed in 2021. Both laws included significant funding for deploying clean energy and electric vehicles, but implementation of many components is being left up to states. So, for example, states are still required to apply for funding allocated for creating a national network of 500,000 EV chargers.

Despite the often polarized politics of climate change, Republican governors are working with the Biden administration to build up EV infrastructure. Every state submitted a plan for an EV charging network to the Department of Transportation.

“Even if they’re not using the words ‘climate change’ when they are showing up at the ribbon cuttings, we've seen a number of Republican governors welcome the investment,” Balik said.

And some states are layering extra incentives on top of those already passed by Congress. Murphy, for instance, is creating a state program that will add $70 million in subsidies for EV purchases.

A host of states also are adopting California’s newest set of “Clean Car Rules.” So far, New York, Oregon, Washington and Vermont have signed on, and Massachusetts, Colorado and Delaware are in the process of doing so. The rules would require that by 2035, 100% of new-vehicle sales are zero-emissions — EVs, in other words, effectively banning the internal combustion engine.

“We see this as a generational opportunity,” Balik said. “For states, they have to both implement all these federal investments that are coming down from the infrastructure law and the IRA, and then build on the federal victories that we secured last year, and look at what state policy opportunities the federal funding and the new landscape of the IRA opens up. And the economics of clean energy look more favorable every day, especially with the new incentives in the IRA.”

Australian pension fund client queries GQG about Adani investment

The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of its Corporate House on the outskirts of Ahmedabad

Fri, March 3, 2023 
By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) -An Australian pension fund client of GQG Partners has asked the U.S. boutique investment firm for more information about its nearly $1.9 billion investment in the embattled Indian Adani group.

GQG Partners bought shares worth $1.87 billion in four Adani group companies, marking the first major investment in the Indian conglomerate since a short-seller's critical report sparked a stock rout.

The U.S. firm manages money on behalf of at least four major Australian pension funds with a total of A$563 billion under management. GQG's investment could expose these funds to Adani at a time when major investors, including Norway's sovereign wealth fund, are selling the stock.

Cbus Super, with A$71 billion under management, has a A$243 million emerging markets mandate with GQG Partners. A spokesperson told Reuters the fund is working to get a clear picture of its Adani exposure.

"Adani entities had not been part of the portfolio, but we are currently engaging with the external manager who has recently made acquisitions in this area," they said.

GQG Partners Australia and New Zealand managing director Laird Abernethy said in a statement the fund manager had reached out to all its institutional investors to explain the rationale for its purchase.

AustralianSuper, which has an external mandate with GQG Partners, will be exposed to the four Adani Group companies following the deal, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The $258 billion fund had no investments in Adani Group companies as of June 2022, according to a review of the most recent holdings disclosures.

A spokesperson for the A$67 billion Rest Super said the pension fund was aware of the transaction and "currently it has not impacted our portfolio."

Shares of Australia-listed GQG Partners closed down 3% on Friday after news of the investment was made public. The wider bourse edged up 0.4%.

"There's a very high level of scepticism about what that stake means, whether they've understood the risk they're taking on," said Jun Bei Liu, who manages the A$1.2 billion Tribeca Alpha Plus Fund.

New York-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group in a Jan. 24 report of stock manipulation and improper use of offshore tax havens that it said obscured the extent of Adani family stock ownership in group firms.

The Indian conglomerate, which has denied any wrongdoing, has since seen more than $130 billion wiped off the value of its seven listed firms.

(Reporting by Lewis JacksonEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

LORD OF WAR; U$A GUNRUNNER
UN report: Modern weapons being smuggled to Haiti from US


Firearms are displayed during a news conference at the Miami Field Office of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), that was working with other agencies to crack down on an increase of firearms and ammunition smuggling to Haiti and other Caribbean nations, on Aug. 17, 2022. Increasingly sophisticated weapons are being trafficked into Haiti mainly from the United States and especially from Florida amid worsening lawlessness in the impoverished Caribbean nation, according to a U.N. report released Friday, March 4, 2023. 

Fri, March 3, 2023 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Increasingly sophisticated weapons are being trafficked into Haiti mainly from the United States and especially from Florida amid worsening lawlessness in the impoverished Caribbean nation, according to a U.N. report released Friday.

The report by the Vienna-based Office on Drugs and Crime said a network of criminal actors including members of the Haitian diaspora “often source firearms from across the U.S.” and smuggle them into Haiti illegally by land from the neighboring Dominican Republic, by air including to clandestine airstrips, but most frequently by sea.

“Popular handguns selling for $400-$500 at federally licensed firearms outlets or private gun shows in the U.S. can be resold for as much as $10,000 in Haiti,” the report said. “Higher-powered rifles such as AK47s, AR15s and Galils are typically in higher demand from gangs, commanding correspondingly higher prices.”

The U.S Department of Homeland Security’s investigations unit reported “a surge in firearms trafficking from Florida to Haiti between 2021 and 2022” and a spokesman described the recovery of increasingly sophisticated weapons destined for Haitian ports “including .50 caliber sniper rifles, .308 rifles, and even belt-fed machine guns,” according to the report.

“Weapons are frequently procured through straw man purchases in U.S. states with looser gun laws and fewer purchasing restrictions” and then transported to Florida where they are concealed inside consumer products, electronic equipment, garment linings, frozen food items and even the hull of freighters, it said. “On arrival in Haiti, including major hubs such as Port-de-Paix and Port-au-Prince, cargo is offloaded and passed on to end-users via a host of intermediaries.”

The 47-page report, entitled “Haiti’s Criminal Markets: Mapping Trends in Firearms and Drug Trafficking,” cites the challenges of patrolling 1,771 kilometers (1,100 miles) of Haiti's coastline and a 392-kilometer (243-mile) border with the Dominican Republic with national police, border and coast guard operations that are severely under-staffed, under-resourced and “increasingly targeted by gangs.”

The heavily-armed gangs are also targeting ports, highways, critical infrastructure, customs offices, police stations, court houses, prisons, businesses and neighborhoods, the report said. And throughout 2022 and early 2023 they have expanded their control over key access points to cities including the capital Port-au-Prince.

“Many are also engaged in predatory behavior in communities under their control contributing to rising levels of extortion, sexual violence, kidnapping and fatal violence,” it said, citing an increase in homicides from 1,615 in 2021 to 2,183 in 2022, and a doubling of kidnappings from 664 to 1,359 during the same period.

The U.N. report said private security companies in Haiti are permitted to buy and keep arms, and while independent verification isn’t possible “specialists speculate that there could be 75,000 to 90,000 individuals working with roughly 100 private security companies across the country, at least five times the number of registered police officers.”

According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Haiti has long been a trans-shipment hub to move cocaine, cannabis and to a lesser extent heroin and amphetamines to the United States and the Dominican Republic. The drugs mostly enter the country via boat or plane, arriving through public, private and informal ports as well as clandestine runways.

During the 2000s, the report said, drug traffickers moved illegal airstrips from the outskirts of Port-au-Prince northward to more isolated areas including Savane Diane, roughly 50 miles north of the capital.

When then-President Jovenal Moïse ordered the destruction of suspected clandestine airstrips in June 2021, UNODC said “local authorities refused.” A week later, he was assassinated.

Since the assassination, U.N. officials said gangs have grown more powerful, and gang violence has reached a level not seen in decades. In December, the U.N. estimated that gangs controlled 60% of Haiti’s capital, but most people on the streets in Port-au-Prince say that number is closer to 100%.

In late February, the U.N. condemned a new surge of gang violence in central Haiti.

Haiti was stripped of all democratically elected institutions when the terms of the remaining 10 senators expired in early January. No elections are on the horizon and Prime Minister Ariel Henry continues to plead for the deployment of foreign troops, a request first made in October. The international community has instead opted to impose sanctions and send military equipment and other resources.

___

On the Web: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/toc/Haiti_assessment_UNODC.pdf

A computer engineering student is using ChatGPT to overcome learning challenges linked to her dyslexia

Aaron Mok
Sat, March 4, 2023 

Myriem Khal is a dyslexic French college student who uses ChatGPT to make studying easier.

Courtesy of Myriem Khal

French college student Myriem Khal uses ChatGPT to overcome learning challenges linked to her dyslexia.


Khal passed her final exams with flying colors after using the AI tech to restructure course materials.


Still, learning disability experts are concerned about ChatGPT becoming a catch-all solution.

Students may use OpenAI's ChatGPT to plagiarize and cheat, leading schools around the world to ban the tool, but at least one college student is using it to overcome her learning disability.

Myriem Khal, a French computer engineering student with dyslexia, told Insider that she has used the buzzy AI chatbot to help her understand her course materials. The results, so far, have been promising.

"I got great marks for my final exams," Khal said.

Since she was a kid, Khal said she has struggled to learn English and other languages because of her dyslexia.

Even though she excelled at technical subjects like math and science, learning how to read and write in a different language was "horrible" and "very difficult." Large blocks of text were confusing, grammar didn't click, and she often struggled to formulate a thought on paper. Still, she had dreams of becoming an engineer, so she pushed through her studies and managed to do well in school.

"I have always needed to work harder than others, and I have always fought to be as bright as possible in my studies," Khal said.

Now 23, Khal said her studies came to a head earlier this year when she took a five-week class on artificial intelligence. The course was taught in English, and she struggled to grasp concepts like 'semantic networks' — even when she translated them to her native tongue.

"The teacher was very technical," Khal said. "I didn't understand anything she said."

Khal discovered ChatGPT during finals in January. After learning what it can do, she decided to use the chatbot to study by rearranging class material in a way that made sense.

Khal would ask ChatGPT in French to, say, explain the links and differences between technical jargon like frames and network semantics. ChatGPT would respond in a simple, concise way, she said, adding that she'd always verify the responses with her class notes.

Simplifying the language, she said, helped her digest the material.

Using this method to study, she was able to pass her final exams with flying colors, boosting her overall GPA.

"It was information that was very easy to understand and very easy to remember," she said.

Khal has also used the AI tech in her English class to reconfigure NPR articles for class discussion and to help her come up with ideas for an essay on how the movie 'Forrest Gump' represents America, she said

Khal's university, University of Technology of Compiègne, has not banned ChatGPT, nor have her instructors.

Khal asked ChatGPT in French to explain technical concepts for her AI class to understand the material.

Courtesy of Myriam Khal.

Some learning disability experts worry about students becoming dependent on ChatGPT

Khal is one example of how AI tools like ChatGPT can be useful to manage every day challenges, but medical experts have mixed feelings on how useful they are as a medical device.

Dr. Pledger Fedora, the founder of the Dyslexia Institute for Literacy & Learning, told Dystinct, a magazine that covers learning difficulties, that assistive technology such as text-to-speech software can be "extremely beneficial" in supporting students with dyslexia. However, students can become dependent on these tools, which Fedora said could hurt the development of their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Dyslexia specialist Victoria Leslie, on the other hand, said that she is "very concerned" about ChatGPT, per Dystinct. It can encourage students to "outsource" thinking and tempt them to plagiarize when they struggle, which may impede learning, she said.

Even Khal remains skeptical about using ChatGPT after noticing its limitations, she said. The chatbot, at times, doesn't understand her questions, spits out answers that don't make sense, makes coding mistakes, and answers questions related to AI better than other topics.

Still, she said she will continue experimenting with ChatGPT in her studies with the knowledge that the chatbot isn't completely trustworthy.

Fact-checking is key for her method to work, Khal said. "It's just a tool."

Finland to allow gender reassignment without sterilisation

BARBARIC EUGENIC PRACTICE 

Finnish President Niinisto in Helsinki

Fri, March 3, 2023 

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Finland will allow transgender people to change their legal gender at their own request and without undergoing sterilisation, new legislation signed by the Finnish President confirmed on Friday.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that requiring sterilisation in order for individuals to change the sex on their birth certificate is a violation of human rights.

Finland's new law will enable people above the age of 18 to legally determine their gender through a self-declaration form, and is meant to reinforce the protection of the right to self-determination and to reduce discrimination, the ministry of social affairs and health said.

Medical examinations and sterilization will no longer be required to legally change one's gender, it added.

On Friday, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto ratified the new legislation which is will enter into force on April 3.

The Czech Republic, Latvia, and Romania currently require individuals to undergo sterilization before legally changing their gender, according to Transgender Europe (TGEU).

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Anne Kauranen and Christina Fincher)

Texas: Wind and solar stake claim to land of oil

Moisés ÁVILA
Sat, March 4, 2023 


Modern Texas was built on oil, and its production has long been a source of immense pride. But now, areas that moved to the steady rhythm of oil derricks for more than a century are making the state a national leader in wind and solar energy.

A convergence of factors has led to this unexpected result: favorable weather (lots of wind and sun), relatively cheap land, the lure of federal clean-energy subsidies, and a desire to backstop a utility system that failed dramatically during a 2021 cold snap.

Two counties south of Dallas, Navarro and Limestone, symbolize this surprising shift. Inextricably part of the Texas petroleum industry since the late 19th century, they are now in the vanguard of the renewable revolution.

Wind and solar projects "have Navarro County leading the nation with renewables," said the county's economic development director, John Boswell.

Symbolizing this push is a new wind farm inaugurated last week by French multinational energy company Engie, with 88 wind turbines capable of producing 300 megawatts (MW) of power.

A half-hour's drive to the west, in the small town of Abbott, is a 250 MW solar farm, also built by Engie, that is now producing electricity.

Texas is the nation's leader -- by far -- in providing clean energy to corporate and industrial buyers, at 35 percent of the national total, according to the American Clean Power organization.

The state of Ohio has about half Texas's number of corporate and industrial projects, just ahead of California in third place.

"It's true that when we think about Texas, we think about this very large oil and gas state," said Engie executive Frank Demaille.

But, he added, its natural resources are not all buried in the ground.

"They've got lots of wind, lots of sun, and are very good at managing all their different resources."

- Plentiful resources -

With its huge and sprawling petrochemical industry, a population of 30 million, and a fierce history of independence, Texas in many ways stands apart from the rest of the country -- for better or for worse.

One way its go-it-alone mentality did not help became apparent in 2021, when a rare and intense cold wave swept through the state -- whose power utility was not connected to two major national grids -- provoking electric outages that affected millions and were blamed for more than 200 deaths.

Texas today remains primarily dependent on fossil fuels. As of early this year, gas was its leading source of energy (at 42 percent, according to Ercot, which manages the state's electrical grid). Coal trails at 11 percent.

But renewable sources have carved out a major role.

Wind-generated power now provides 29 percent of Texas's needs, with solar at 11 percent. The remainder comes from nuclear and hydropower.

By comparison, wind was at 24 percent just two years ago, and solar at less than 5 percent.

Given Texas's deep investments in and long history with carbon-based energy, experts don't expect it to give way to renewables anytime soon.

"I think what you'll see in the future is a combination of both of those, because Texas is committed to both" sources, said Jeff Montgomery, whose Blattner Energy company is behind 400 renewable projects across the country.

Texas is a major supplier of natural gas to Europe. And now, said Demaille of Engie, "because of the war in Ukraine, we're importing more gas from the US, and especially from Texas."

Meantime, however, legislation backed by the Biden administration and voted into law last year could accelerate the move to renewables through substantial federal subsidies.

- 'Show the value' -

Robert Lowry, superintendent of the Coolidge school district in Limestone County, said the tax revenues that renewable-energy projects generate can make a difference for school systems like his.

"We have the funds now to be able to do some great things for our kiddos that we've ever had before," he said.

But not everyone shares that enthusiasm.

John Null, an engineer who lives near Dawson, said locals aren't seeing the immediate benefit they would hope for from the huge wind turbines visible from his window.

During an ice storm last month, for example, the turbines kept turning but, linked to a broader network, provided no energy to the neighboring community.

He said wind power needs to be "properly pitched" to the public.

"Show me the value," he said, and people would support wind energy.

In some areas, renewable projects are touted as providing power to poorer neighborhoods.

In a less-affluent part of Houston, the fourth-largest US city, a solar farm is to be built over a former dump. That project should begin providing 50 MW of power in 2024, said BQ Energy CEO Paul Curran.

A former petroleum industry executive, Curran says fossil fuels and renewable energy sources need not be in competition.

"It's not very difficult if you do wind and solar in the right places for the right market," he said.

"It's very well received by energy experts and oil industry people."

mav/els/bbk/md

The Air Force's Modular Reactor Will Create Jet Fuel Out of Water and Air

Sébastien Roblin
Fri, March 3, 2023 

USAF's Reactor Creates Jet Fuel Out of Water, AirParsa Tavakoli / EyeEm - Getty Images

The New York-based startup Air Company has been awarded $65 million by an Air Force Defense Innovation Unit for a project known as SynCe to install a Carbon Conversion Reactor that promises to create synthetic jet fuel out of water and carbon dioxide in the air we breathe.

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) isn’t an entirely new thing—back in December 2006, a B-52 bomber flew for 7 hours on a 50/50 blend of traditional jet fuel and a synthetic fuel called Syntroleum produced using the Fischer-Tropsch process. According to the International Air Transport Association, by 2022, over 450,000 commercial flights by 50 airlines had used SAFs in part—though they tend to be 2 to 4 times more expensive than traditional fossil fuels.

But AirCompany argues its AirMade fuel differs from these predecessors in that it’s a ‘drop-in’ kerosene that doesn’t require blending with fossil fuels at all. Furthermore, the conversion reactor doesn’t require an exotic, specially sourced feedstock—it simply needs carbon dioxide, which can be obtained anywhere.

For a good measure, AirCompany claims its carbon-neutral fuel results in a reduction of about 94 to 97 percent greenhouse gas emissions (depending on the source of electricity)—the highest of any on the market the company alleges. According to a chart produced by Air Company, competing biofuels result in only a 60 to 80 percent reduction, and traditional Fischer-Tropsch based PTL-FT processes hit 90 percent. And those must be blended 50-50 with fossil fuels, or worse.

The Brooklyn-based startup was launched in 2019 by Harvard Business School alum Gregory Constantine and Dr. Stafford Sheehan. Their initial products include Air Vodka (“the world’s first carbon-negative spirit”), eau de parfume, and hand sanitizer.

The leap from 80-proof vodka to jet fuel may seem steep, but AirCompany’s AirMade fuel—currently being mass produced in Brooklyn—has already lined up buyers in civil aviation sector:

Virgin Atlantic has agreed to purchase 100 million gallons over 10 years


Jet Blue agreed to purchase 25 million gallons over 5 years


Boom Supersonic agreed to purchase 5 millions gallons annually for their Overture Test Flight Program

Last summer, Air Company, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Hsu Foundation collaborated to realize a test flight on an unmanned aircraft that ran on 100 percent AirMade fuel.

There is undoubtedly growing interest in advertising green travel in commercial aviation, and sustainable fuels may represent a more satisfying mechanism than carbon offsets.

Air Company’s collaboration with the military goes beyond adopting greener fuel to where it can be produced: a base with carbon capture and Air Company’s reactor could produce its own fuel without depending on external fuel supply lines, which are vulnerable to attack.

Air Company says the Army lost one soldier killed or wounded for every 24 fuel resupply convoys in Afghanistan. Many of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of World War II revolved around the defense of or denial of fuel logistics. The startup therefore claims its modular reactors could result in a “safer, more robust, and decentralized fuel supply chain” which could be set up “anywhere, globally.”

How It Works

Air Company’s reactor is an advancement over the Fischer-Tropsch process developed in 1925, which involved converting sold carbon monoxide (CO1) and hydrogen into a gas called syngas, which is then liquified using metal catalysts under high pressure at a temperature of 300 to 572 degrees Fahrenheit. This process had an efficiency ranging from 25 to 50 percent. During World War II, an increasingly fuel-starved Nazi Germany leveraged the technique to convert its abundant coal supply into fuel, generating 25 percent of fuel it used for ground vehicles.

Air Company’s reactor simplifies the process by skipping the solid-to-gas conversation, and instead runs on hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide. The CO2 is captured, typically from industrial sites, and cooled, pressurized, liquified, and poured into a storage tank. Presumably, capture devices will be supplied to operator facilities. Meanwhile, hydrogen gas is obtained on-site by electrolyzing water (H2O), separating the hydrogen (used by the reactor) from the oxygen, which is cleanly released.

In the subsequent conversion stage, a catalyzing puck is introduced to catalyze the mix of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, producing a reactor liquid made of alcohols, alkanes and water. These elements are then distilled and separated by leveraging their different boiling points, resulting in outputs of ethanol, methanol and paraffins, as well as water which can then be reused by the reactor.

The process has an energy efficiency of 50 percent. According to a company representative, 23.2 pounds of CO2 are used for every gallon of jet fuel produced.

Thinking Big

Of course, the big question—and challenge—underlying any Green technology is whether it can be implemented cost efficiently on a large scale. Air Company claims that utilizing its tech “across all potential verticals” could remove 4.6 billion ton of CO2 from the atmosphere annually, or 10.8 percent of global emissions.

As for cost efficiency, a company representative tells Popular Mechanics “…they’re on track to achieve cost parity with tradition fossil fuel-derived jet fuels as they use renewable energies like wind and solar for their energy input.” That parity is also facilitated by “pursuing an array of government incentives made available to fuel producers generating sustainable alternatives.”

Another challenge will be output volume, as military aircraft notoriously consume huge quantities of jet fuel. For example, an Air Force F-16C short-range jet fighter, for example, typically stores just over 1,000 gallons of internal fuel, which when loaded with weapons, often must be supplemented with external fuel tanks and in-flight refueling. The Air Force will need to figure out how large a physical footprint AirCompany’s technology would require to sustain, say, a flight of four F-16s each flying two sorties per day.

However, if Air Company’s venture proves scalable, it has obvious appeal to the Air Force which is seeking to achieve both its own carbon emission reductions goals, and execute its doctrine of Agile Combat Employment (ACE), in which in wartime combat aircraft are dispersed to numerous satellite bases to reduce their vulnerability to missile attacks. Being able to quickly deploy organic fuel-generating systems to dispersed, remote bases could ease the requisite logistics.