Myanmar army killed 17 people in 2 villages, residents say




MyanmarMen pull a raft with several bodies onboard while crossing the Mu river between Myinmu and Sagaing townships in the Sagaing region in central Myanmar on Thursday, March 2, 2023. Soldiers in Myanmar rampaged through several villages, raping, beheading and killing at least 17 people, residents said, in the latest of what critics of the ruling military say are a series of war crimes since the army seized power two years ago. (UGC via AP)

GRANT PECK
Mon, March 6, 2023 

BANGKOK (AP) — Soldiers in Myanmar rampaged through several villages, raping, beheading and killing at least 17 people, residents said, in the latest of what critics of the ruling military say are a series of war crimes since the army seized power two years ago.

The bodies of 17 people were recovered last week in the villages of Nyaung Yin and Tar Taing — also called Tatai — in Sagaing region in central Myanmar, according to members of the anti-government resistance and a resident who lost his wife. They said the victims had been detained by the military and in some cases appeared to have been tortured before being killed.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military’s February 2021 seizure of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi prompted nationwide peaceful protests that security forces suppressed with deadly force. The violence triggered widespread armed resistance, which has since turned into what some U.N. experts have characterized as a civil war.

The army has been conducting major offensives in the countryside, including burning villages and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. It has faced some of its toughest resistance in Sagaing, in Myanmar’s historic heartland.

The soldiers involved in last week’s attacks were in a group of more than 90 who were brought to the area by five helicopters on Feb. 23, said local leaders of the pro-democracy People’s Defense Forces and independent Myanmar media.

They said the bodies of 14 people, including three women, were found Thursday on a small island in a river in Nyaung Yin. Three more male victims were found in Tar Taing, including two members of the local resistance. One of the two was dismembered, with his head cut off, they said.

The neighboring villages are about 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of the major city of Mandalay.

Tar Taing resident Moe Kyaw, 42, survived the attack but said his 39-year-old wife, Pan Thwal, and 18-year-old nephew were among those killed. Contacted by phone, he said Friday they were among 70 villagers detained in the middle of the night last Wednesday by soldiers who shot into the air as they herded their captives from their homes to the local Buddhist monastery.

Moe Kyaw said the soldiers stole beer and other items from his aunt’s small shop, and as they beat her, he fled for his life, escaping two soldiers who shot at him.

He said his wife and other villagers were tortured at the monastery and then taken away from the village, apparently as hostages against any attack. He said his wife and two other women were beaten, raped and shot dead on Thursday by the soldiers, who also took his spouse’s earrings, His two sons, 9 and 11 years old, were released when the soldiers departed, he said.

Moe Kyaw did not explain how he knew the details about his wife's treatment.

Myanmar’s underground National Unity Government — the main organization opposed to military rule that describes itself as the country’s legitimate government — said in an online news conference on Monday that the soldiers were from the 99th Light Infantry Division based in Mandalay Region.

A leader of a Sagaing resistance group called the Demon King Defense Force said his group attacked the better-armed government troops on Wednesday in a failed effort to rescue the detained villagers.

When they went Thursday morning to the small island where the soldiers had taken about 20 villagers they found 14 bodies in three spots, said the resistance leader, who asked not to be identified because of fear of reprisals by the military.

Acknowledging that he had not seen the killings, he said he also believed the women had been raped.

In an earlier incident apparently involving the same army unit, two boys aged 12 and 13 assisting the People’s Defense Force were captured by government troops on Feb. 26 and beheaded after being forced to show the locations of their camps, according to independent Myanmar media. Photos said to be of their bodies, found at Kan Daw village, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) northwest of Tar Taing, were circulated on social media.

A separate group, the Sadaung Lighting People’s Defense Force, has said that two of its older teenage members were also killed and beheaded in fighting at Kan Daw on the same day.

The military government has not responded to the allegations. In the past, it has denied documented abuses and said that casualties occurred in the course of fighting against armed anti-government guerrillas. Online media supportive of the military government have made the same claim about the recent incidents in Sagaing or suggested that they were the result of factional fighting within the resistance.

Myanmar’s military has long been accused of serious human rights violations, most notably in the western state of Rakhine. International courts are considering whether it committed genocide there in a brutal 2017 counterinsurgency campaign that caused more than 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to neighboring Bangladesh for safety.

Last week, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk accused the ruling generals of carrying out “a scorched earth policy in an attempt to stamp out opposition.”

His agency said credible sources have verified the deaths of at least 2,940 civilians and 17,572 arrests by the military and its allies since the 2021 takeover.

France reports bird flu in foxes near Paris, WOAH says


Illustration shows person holding test tube labelled "Bird Flu\

Tue, March 7, 2023 

PARIS (Reuters) -France has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu among red foxes northeast of Paris, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Tuesday, as the spread of the virus to mammals raised global concerns.

After three foxes were found dead in a nature reserve in Meaux near where gulls had died, one of the foxes was collected and tested, WOAH said in a report, citing French authorities.

The World Health Organization last month described the bird flu situation as "worrying" due to the recent rise in cases in birds and mammals and that it was reviewing its global risk assessment in light of recent developments including cases of human transmission in Cambodia.

Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has been spreading around the world in the past year, killing more than 200 million birds, sending egg prices rocketing and raising concern among governments about human transmission.

The virus infected a cat in France in late December.

It has also been detected in minks in Spain, foxes and otters in Britain, sea lions in Peru and grizzly bears in the United States.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, editing by Gus Trompiz and Ed Osmond)

CERAWEEK-'Houston, we have a problem'-Energy industry grapples with climate fight

"I think if you're going to go through the greatest transformation that the world has seen in over 100 years, of unplugging from one energy system and creating a whole other one, you can't just do it  without planning it out,"

The CERAWeek 2023 energy conference in Houston

Mon, March 6, 2023 
By Stephanie Kelly and Sabrina Valle

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Top global energy executives and officials on Monday grappled with how to transition the global economy from fossil fuels to renewables quickly enough to prevent climate disaster without disrupting strategic oil and gas supplies.

"Houston, we have a problem," two top executives told some of the most powerful figures in global energy in the capital of the U.S. oil industry, using the same famous line from an astronaut in the damaged 1970 Apollo 13 spacecraft.

Sultan al-Jaber, chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and president-designate of the COP28 climate summit, used the line to urge conference participants to do more faster to limit global warming, which the fuel produced by most of energy companies present had accelerated.

Earlier, Petronas CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik used the same phrase in a panel discussion on the challenge of balancing the need for energy security and affordability.

Jaber's call for energy companies to work toward the transition was an unusual moment at an event that has long been a mainstay for fossil fuel producers, who have previously viewed such calls as a threat to their business.

Last year, many climate activists balked at Jaber's appointment as COP28 president, saying Big Oil was hijacking the world's response to global warming. Others welcomed it as a sign the energy industry would get involved in the transition.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy crunch that disrupted fossil fuel supplies to industry and consumers. Rising fuel prices fueled decades-high global inflation in 2022.

Many in the industry viewed the disruptions to Russian supply as a reminder to avoid policies that cut off or drive up prices for fossil fuels. Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth told attendees that maintaining secure and affordable supplies while managing the energy transition to the low-carbon economy was "one of the greatest challenges of all time."

A disorderly energy transition could be "painful and chaotic", Wirth said.

"We have to be very careful about turning system A off prematurely and depending on a system that doesn't yet exist and hasn't been proven," he said.

Disruptions of gas supply to Europe, which has hurt the largest economy on the continent in Germany, have accelerated the transition, said German state secretary in the economy ministry, Patrick Graichen.

"If you are used to cheap Russian gas and you wake up in this world, there are some fundamental questions that need to be answered," he said. Germany needed to fast forward electrification and build a green hydrogen supply, he said.

"If we can speed that up and fit it together - it's not about securing the old world but speeding up the transition to the new world."

Top U.S. oil firm Exxon said each country would take a different path to energy transition, depending on the resources available. In some countries, gas would be a transition fuel, said Liam Mallon, the president upstream oil and gas at Exxon.

Mallon called on policymakers and international and national oil companies to map out the transition together.

"We cannot do this alone," he said. "This takes policymakers regulators, innovators, NOC these IOC is all working together to create the right incentives to progress through this energy transition"

U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein said the hardest part of the energy transition was coordinating the timeline for change.

"I think if you're going to go through the greatest transformation that the world has seen in over 100 years, of unplugging from one energy system and creating a whole other one, you can't just do it without planning it out," Hochstein said.

(Writing by Simon Webb; Editing by David Gregorio)

Oil CEO who will head 2023 climate talks calls for change


Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., speaks at Ceraweek on Monday, March 6, 2023, in Houston. Al-Jaber, who will lead international climate talks later this year, told energy industry power players on Monday that the world must cut emissions 7% each year and eliminate all emissions of the greenhouse gas methane. (Courtesy of Ceraweek)

ISABELLA O'MALLEY
Mon, March 6, 2023 

A top oil company CEO who will lead international climate talks later this year told energy industry power players on Monday that the world must cut emissions 7% each year and eliminate all releases of the greenhouse gas methane — strong comments from an oil executive.

“Let me call on you to decarbonize quicker,” Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., said at the Ceraweek conference, held in Houston.

But al-Jabar did not directly address emissions from transportation, where most crude oil ends up. Emissions from transport are the largest contributor to climate change in many countries, including the United States.

Al-Jaber singled out electricity, cement, steel and aluminum as targets for cleanup, but not trucks, cars, trains and aircraft. He called for far greater investment to speed the transition to cleaner industries.

“According to the IEA, in 2022, the world invested $1.4 trillion in the energy transition,” he said. “We need over three times that amount.”

And that investment. he said, must flow to the developing world.

“Only 15% of clean tech investment reaches developing economies in the global south, and that is where 80% of the population live,” he stressed.

Al-Jaber did not call for the phasing out of oil and gas production and use, something that scientists and advocates have been demanding unsuccessfully over repeated COPs, short for Conference of the Parties, where nations meet to make climate commitments.

According to the International Energy Agency, to avoid the worst climate changes, there must be no new oil and gas infrastructure built out.

The United Arab Emirates leader said his country was first in its region to commit to the Paris climate agreement, and to set a pathway to net zero emissions. But its emissions in 2021 were up 3%, not down, from the year before, according to the Global Carbon Project. They were however 6% below the country’s peak in 2015. According to Climate Action Tracker, UAE has an overall rating of “highly insufficient,” meaning its projected emissions are not in line with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. pumps approximately 4 million barrels of crude a day and plans on expanding to 5 million barrels daily.

Each year, nations gather at the COP to discuss how Paris Agreement goals to limit global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050, can be achieved through international collaboration.

The 28th such conference, COP28, will be held in Dubai, Nov 30 to Dec. 12. The choice of country has drawn criticism given the nation’s high, and growing level of crude production. The choice of al Jaber, CEO of the national oil company, has also drawn scorn. However, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry has said he backs the UAE leader.

As president of this year's meeting, al-Jaber will have influence over how much pressure is brought to bear on those most reponsible for climate change, countries and companies that produce and burn coal, oil and gas.

Al-Jaber is the UAE minister of industry and advanced technology, and also serves as the chairman of Masdar, a renewable energy company.

Ceraweek attracts high level oil and gas officials each year and is hosted by S&P Global.

___

Ellen Knickmeyer contributed from Washington D.C. and Mary Katherine Wildeman from Hartford, Connecticut.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Canada roiled by leaked intelligence reports of Chinese election ‘meddling’

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

THE GUARDIAN
Tue, March 7, 2023 

Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters

A flurry of leaked intelligence reports has reignited allegations that China interfered in Canada’s recent federal elections, kicking off a fierce debate over possible responses to Beijing’s meddling.

But the leaks also run the risk of harming Canada’s reputation among its allies, experts warn, as the country’s spy agency struggles to respond to mounting public concern.

Opposition leaders have pushed the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, for a public inquiry into how China attempted to sway the result of two federal elections in its favour.

Related: Justin Trudeau to appoint special rapporteur to probe foreign interference in elections

On Monday evening, Trudeau announced he would appoint a special rapporteur to investigate foreign interference allegations, as well as the creation of a foreign agent registry.

“We believe deeply in the values of freedom, openness, and dialogue. These values are not universally shared by every government around the world,” Trudeau said. “Indeed, I don’t know if in our lifetime, we’ve seen democracy in a more precarious place. Many state actors and non-state actors want to foster instability here and elsewhere, to advance their own interests.”

Trudeau cited a recent report that found neither China nor any other nation was able to successfully interfere in Canada’s elections.

“We will always stand firm when it comes to defending our national security,” he said.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

Members of an independent panel, set up to monitor possible threats to elections, recently told lawmakers that the meddling attempts by China and other nations did not threaten Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election in 2021.

But concerns over China’s actions in Canada have grown in recent months, following reports of illegal “police stations” operating in major cities.

The Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, said the most recent allegations of Chinese attempts to subvert federal elections demanded an outside review, suggesting ahead of the prime minister’ announcement that Trudeau would just try to “sweep this under the rug” and keep the process secretive.

The New Democratic party – which previously pledged to support the governing Liberals on votes of confidence until 2025 – joined the calls, warning it could tie future support for the government to a public inquiry.

The main source of revelations has been leaked documents from CSIS, Canada’s main intelligence agency. Both the Globe and Mail and Global News have cited the documents in their reporting on Chinese attempts to tamper with the federal election.

“I’m astonished by the leaks of CSIS material,” said Jessica Davis, a former intelligence analyst for the Canadian government and head of Insight Threat Intelligence. Davis cautioned that it was unclear if the documents shared with media outlets were part of a finished intelligence assessment or relied on a single source. She also said it was unclear if the leaks were coming from within the spy agency or from a source at another intelligence division.

Davis said that the leaks appeared to have been selective, largely highlighting how the Liberals themselves benefited from Chinese interference.

“This is really sensitive information … and there’s a hubris to people who selectively leak this sort of thing. They often assume they ‘know best’ about what information should be in the public domain and are overly confident they can anticipate the consequence of the leaks.”

The Royal Canadian Mounted police confirmed on Monday it had launched an investigation into the leaks, which officials previously said breached national security laws.

But senior security and intelligence officials’ reluctance to comment on any of the highly sensitive information has done little to tamp down widespread speculation about the extent of the meddling.

A poll released this week by the polling firm Angus Reid Institute found that two-thirds of Canadians believe the Chinese government attempted to interfere in the past two federal elections.

In addition to shaping public opinion, the leaks also run the risk of undermining Canada’s credibility among its allies – a reputation already damaged after a top intelligence official was arrested for stealing covert information.

Related: Canada: arrest of ex-head of intelligence shocks experts and alarms allies

“For our allies, it is completely unacceptable to have sensitive documents shared like this,” said Davis. “These sorts of leaks will have them asking whether or not we can be trusted to protect the super-sensitive information that they’re sharing with us.”

Davis also cautioned that the country’s intelligence agencies appear to have been caught flat-footed by the leaks and have failed to be open and honest with the public about attempts to interfere in Canada’s election.

“Our security agencies need to be doing a much better job of communicating with Canadians. If they don’t, Canadians will begin losing confidence in them – and possibly in our elections and democracy.”

SAY NO TO CLUSTER BOMBS 
Ukraine seeks US cluster bombs to adapt for drone use - lawmakers





Mon, March 6, 2023
By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ukraine has broadened a request for controversial cluster bombs from the United States to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalize to drop the anti-armor bomblets it contains on Russian forces from drones, according to two U.S. lawmakers.

Kyiv has urged members of Congress to press the White House to approve sending the weapons but it is by no means certain that the Biden administration will sign off on that. Cluster munitions, banned by more than 120 countries, normally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, threatening civilians.

Ukraine is seeking the MK-20, an air-delivered cluster bomb, to release its individual explosives from drones, said U.S. Representatives Jason Crow and Adam Smith, who both serve on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. That is in addition to 155 mm artillery cluster shells that Ukraine already has requested, they said.

They said Ukrainian officials urged U.S. lawmakers at last month's Munich Security Conference to press for White House approval.

Ukraine hopes cluster munitions will give it an edge in the grinding fight against Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government has said publicly that it wants U.S. cluster munitions. The petition for MK-20s - also known as CBU-100s - has not been reported previously.

The Ukrainian Embassy referred Reuters to the defense ministry in Kyiv, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A National Security Council spokesperson said that while Ukraine and the White House "closely coordinate" on military aid, she had no "new capabilities to announce."

FIGHTING THE "HUMAN WAVE"

Ukraine wants the artillery rounds - the Dual-Purpose Conventional Improved Munitions (DPICM) - to halt the kinds of "human wave" attacks that Russia has mounted in its months-long drive to overrun the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, the lawmakers said.

Each shell disperses 88 submunitions.

The MK-20 is delivered by aircraft. It opens in mid-flight, releasing more than 240 dart-like submunitions, or bomblets.

The Ukrainian military believes these submunitions "have better armor-piercing capability" than the weapons it has been dropping from drones, said Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

Ukraine, battling an enemy with more manpower and weaponry, has used drones extensively for surveillance and for dropping explosives on Russian forces.

Crow, a Democrat and U.S. Army veteran, said he might support giving the MK-20 with assurances that Ukrainians would remove the bomblets and "use them in a non-cluster employment."

Production of the MK-20s ended years ago, but the U.S. military retains a stockpile of the Cold War-era weapon.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who also participated in last month's conference, confirmed that Ukrainian officials in Munich urged U.S. lawmakers to press the White House to provide Kyiv with cluster munitions. He said he would do so this week.

The congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Ukrainian officials also privately have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington to press for White House approval.

"That's not going to happen," Smith said, referring to Biden administration signoff.

CONTROVERSIAL WEAPONS

Since the start of the conflict Ukraine has asked for - and largely received - weapons that the U.S. initially refused, including HIMARS missile launchers, Patriot air defense batteries and Abrams tanks. But cluster munitions could be a step too far for the administration and some in Congress.

Opponents argue that when bomblets scatter they can maim and kill civilians and have high failure rates, with duds posing a danger for years after a conflict ends.

A 2008 pact prohibiting the production, use and stockpiling of cluster munitions has been adopted by 123 countries, including most of NATO's 28 members. The United States, Russia and Ukraine have declined to join.

Giving the Ukrainians "a banned weapon would undermine their moral authority in a way that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would exploit," said Tom Malinowski, a former congressman who served as the top State Department human rights official.

But there is some support in Congress. The congressional aide said most Republicans "are fairly amenable" to Ukraine's requests.

"This is a war where (the Ukrainians) are outmanned," Graham told Reuters. "And cluster munitions really are pretty lethal to mass formations as well as armor. In the areas where they are going to use this stuff there are no civilians."

A 2009 law bans exports of U.S. cluster munitions with bomblet failure rates higher than 1 percent, which covers virtually all of the U.S. military stockpile. U.S. President Joe Biden can waive the prohibition.

Ukrainian and Russian forces both have used such weapons since Russia first seized Ukrainian territory in 2014, according to news reports and human rights groups.

The U.S. Army is spending more than $6 million a year to decommission 155 mm cluster artillery shells and other older munitions, according to budget documents

Providing DCIPMs would ease shortages of other kinds of 155 mm shells that Washington has been shipping to Kyiv in massive quantities, the congressional aide said.

Crow said he opposed providing the DCIPMs to Ukraine because of the high failure rate of the bomblets, which would worsen Ukraine’s already massive unexploded ordnance problem.

The State Department says that some 174,000 square-kilometers of territory – nearly one-third of Ukraine – are contaminated by landmines or other "explosive remnants of war."

(Additional reporting by Mike Stone; Editing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/en-gb/cluster-bombs/what-is-a-cluster-bomb.aspx

What is a Cluster Bomb? - Cluster Munition Coalition 

Cluster bombs have killed and injured thousands of civilians during their history of use and continue to do so today.A cluster munition, or cluster bomb, ...

http://www.stopclustermunitions.org

Cluster Munition Coalition | CMC 

The Cluster Munition Coalition is an international civil society campaign working to eradicate cluster munitions, prevent further casualties and put an end ...

https://www.hrw.org/topic/arms/cluster-munitions

Cluster Munitions | Human Rights Watch 

Cluster munitions pose an immediate threat to civilians during conflict by randomly scattering submunitions or bomblets over a wide area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_munition

Cluster munition - Wikipedia 

A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster ...

...

https://treaties.unoda.org/t/cluster_munitions

Convention on Cluster Munitions - UNODA Treaties - United Nations 

Convention on Cluster Munitions. Status of the treaty; Text of the treaty. Adopted in Dublin: 30 May 2008. Opened for signature in Oslo: 3 December 2008.

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/cluster-munitions

Cluster Munitions - The New York Times 

America's Dark History of Killing Its Own Troops With Cluster Munitions ... The weapons are notorious for their effects on civilians. But five years of reporting ...

https://www.un.org/disarmament/convention-on-cluster-munitions

Convention on Cluster Munitions – UNODA - the United Nations 

A cluster munition is a weapon consisting of a container or dispenser from which many submunitions or bomblets are scattered over wide areas. Many submunitions ...

https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/clustermunitions

Cluster Munitions – UNODA - the United Nations 

Cluster munitions have a “wide-area effect”, which makes them inherently inaccurate when used. Moreover, unexploded duds lying around form a ...

https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/weapons/cluster-munitions

Cluster munitions | International Committee of the Red Cross 

Cluster munitions kill and injure large numbers of civilians and cause long lasting socio-economic problems. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions ...

Mississippi Senate OKs bill affecting majority-Black Capitol city


More than 200 people gather on the steps of the Mississippi Capitol on Jan. 31, 2023, to protest against a bill that would expand the patrol territory for the state-run Capitol Police within the majority-Black city of Jackson and create a new court system with appointed rather than elected judges. 

(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)


EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Tue, March 7, 2023 

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The majority-white and Republican-led Mississippi Senate voted Tuesday to pass its version of a bill that would allow an expanded role for state police and appointed judges inside the majority-Black capital city of Jackson, which is led by Democrats.

“It is vastly improved from where it started, but it is still a snake,” Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson said of the bill during Tuesday’s debate.

Critics say that in a state where older African Americans still remember the struggle to gain access to the ballot decades ago, the bill is a paternalistic attempt to intrude on local decision-making and voting rights in the capital, which has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city.

The Mississippi House — which is also majority-white and Republican-led — passed the first version of the bill last month. The House version would have created two permanent new courts inside Jackson with judges appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice. The current justice is a conservative white man.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who is Black, said the proposal reminds him of apartheid.

The Senate voted 34-15 to pass its revised version of the bill Tuesday, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

Supporters of the bill say they are trying to improve public safety in Jackson, which has had more than 100 homicides during each of the past three years.

“We all know the nation is watching. They have been,” Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula said before Tuesday’s Senate vote. “And with this bill, we are standing up for the citizens of Jackson and for our state capital.”

The bill returns to the House, which could accept the Senate changes or seek final negotiations in the next few weeks.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has decried crime in Jackson but has not said whether he would sign the bill if it lands on his desk.

The Senate version removed the permanent new courts. Instead, it would allow the chief justice to appoint one judge to work within the existing court system through December 2026.

Hinds County, which is home to Jackson, currently has four elected circuit court judges who handle criminal and civil cases. Mississippi is already spending some of its federal COVID-19 relief money to pay for four appointed judges to temporarily help the elected judges in Hinds County with a backlog of cases that developed when courts were closed because of the pandemic. The Senate version of the bill would add a fifth appointed temporary judge.

The Senate version also would authorize the state-run Capitol Police to patrol the entire city of Jackson. Currently, Capitol Police officers patrol in downtown and some nearby neighborhoods where state government buildings are located. Officers from the city-run Jackson Police Department patrol the entire city.

The House version of the bill would have expanded Capitol Police territory into affluent parts of Jackson, including shopping areas and predominantly white neighborhoods — but not into the entire city.

Arkela Lewis, whose 25-year-old son Jaylen Lewis was shot to death by Capitol Police last year, told lawmakers Monday that the proposal to expand the territory of the state-run police department terrifies and angers her.

Oklahoma voters reject legalizing recreational marijuana





 Oklahoma Marijuana Store manager Josh Poole is pictured in a Mango Cannabis medical marijuana dispensary, Monday, March 6, 2023, in Oklahoma City. 
ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 7, 2023


OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma voters on Tuesday rejected the legalization of recreational marijuana, following a late blitz of opposition from faith leaders, law enforcement and prosecutors.

Oklahoma would have become the 22nd state to legalize adult use of cannabis and join conservative states like Montana and Missouri that have approved similar proposals in recent years. Many conservative states have also rejected the idea, including Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota last year.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and many of the state’s GOP legislators, including nearly every Republican senator, opposed the idea. Former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, an ex-FBI agent, and Terri White, the former head of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, led the "no" campaign.

“We’re pleased the voters have spoken," said Pat McFerron, a Republican political strategist who ran the opposition campaign. "We think this sends a clear signal that voters are not happy with the recreational nature of our medicinal system. We also think it shows voters recognize the criminal aspects, as well as the need for addressing mental health needs of the state.”

Oklahoma voters already approved medical marijuana in 2018 by 14 percentage points and the state has one of the most liberal programs in the country, with more than 2,800 licensed dispensaries and roughly 10% of the state’s adult population having a medical license to buy and consume cannabis.

On Tuesday's legalization question, the “no” side was outspent more than 20-to-1, with supporters of the initiative spending more than $4.9 million, compared to about $219,000 against, last-minute campaign finance reports show.

State Question 820, the result of a signature gathering drive last year, was the only item on the statewide ballot, and early results showed heavy opposition in rural areas.

“Oklahoma is a law and order state," Stitt said in a statement after Tuesday's vote. "I remain committed to protecting Oklahomans and my administration will continue to hold bad actors accountable and crack down on illegal marijuana operations in our state.”

The proposal, if passed, would have allowed anyone over the age of 21 to purchase and possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana, plus concentrates and marijuana-infused products. Recreational sales would have been subjected to a 15% excise tax on top of the standard sales tax. The excise tax would be used to help fund local municipalities, the court system, public schools, substance abuse treatment and the state’s general revenue fund.

The prospect of having more Oklahomans smoking anything, including marijuana, didn't sit well with Mark Grossman, an attorney who voted against the proposal Tuesday at the Crown Heights Christian Church in Oklahoma City.

“I was a no vote because I'm against smoking,” Grossman said. “Tobacco smoking was a huge problem for my family.”

The low barriers for entry into Oklahoma's medical marijuana industry has led to a flood of growers, processors and dispensary operators competing for a limited number of customers. Supporters had hoped the state's marijuana industry would be buoyed by a rush of out-of-state customers, particularly from Texas, which has close to 8 million people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area just a little more than an hour drive from the Oklahoma border.

Michelle Tilley, campaign director for Yes on 820, said despite Tuesday's result, full marijuana legalization was inevitable. She noted that almost 400,000 Oklahomans already use marijuana legally and “many thousands more” use it illegally.

“A two-tiered system, where one group of Oklahomans is free to use this product and the other is treated like criminals does not make logical sense,” she said in a statement.

Oklahoma Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Effort To Legalize Recreational Marijuana

Jonathan Nicholson
Tue, March 7, 2023 

Oklahoma voters sharply rejected a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana Tuesday, a defeat that came almost five years after voters had easily approved the legalization of medical marijuana.

With almost all precincts having reported, the vote on State Question 820 was 62% opposed and 38% in favor.

“We think this sends a clear message that Oklahomans oppose the unfettered access to marijuana we have experienced under our so-called medical program. Voters clearly want to protect our children, crack down on organized crime and improve the mental health of those in our state,” said Pat McFerron, a spokesperson and pollster for Protect Our Kids No 820.

The campaign was a relatively low-key affair, though, as the vote was pushed back from the November 2022 date marijuana proponents had been hoping for to March, where the initiative was the sole item to be voted on in many places.

Supporters of legalized recreational marijuana saw that placement as one of the main obstacles to its approval.

“With a March special election and no other issues on the ballot, we knew from the beginning this would be an uphill battle,” said Brian Vicente, a lawyer and a steering committee member for the pro-legalization group Yes on 820.

Michelle Tilley, the group’s campaign director, said it was only a matter of time before Oklahoma joined 21 other states in approving marijuana for recreational use.

With a March special election and no other issues on the ballot, we knew from the beginning this would be an uphill battle.Brian Vicente, steering commitee member for the Yes on 820 pro-legalization group

“There are almost 400,000 Oklahomans ― that’s almost 10% of our population ― using marijuana legally; there are many thousands more using marijuana acquired off the illicit market,” she said.

“A two-tiered system, where one group of Oklahomans is free to use this product and the other is treated like criminals does not make logical sense.”

Proponents touted the prospect of additional tax revenue for the state from expanding the marijuana market and the fairness of allowing people with minor convictions in marijuana cases to have them expunged.

Opponents, led by former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, a onetime FBI agent, pointed to problems with the existing medical marijuana regime as well as fears that legalizing recreational marijuana would bring more crime and environmental problems.

Legalization advocates held a decisive edge in cash for the campaign, raising $3.2 million through the end of 2022 and airing broadcast TV commercials in the closing weeks. The anti-legalization side, according to its pollster Pat McFerron, was expected to spend only about $250,0000 and concentrate on satellite and cable TV ads.

Ethan McKee, vice president of Mango Cannabis, weighs marijuana flowers at an Oklahoma City dispensary on Feb. 28.

Ethan McKee, vice president of Mango Cannabis, weighs marijuana flowers at an Oklahoma City dispensary on Feb. 28.

But the backdrop was in many ways unfavorable to marijuana advocates. In November, four Chinese nationals were found shot to death at a farm in rural Kingfisher County in a crime that made headlines statewide and that law enforcement officials said showed the potential pitfalls of a larger cannabis industry.

In addition, there had been growing and bipartisan consensus that regulation of medical marijuana, which was approved in a similar statewide vote by a 57% to 43% margin in 2018, had not kept up with the industry’s explosive growth. Oklahoma has nearly three times as many licensed cannabis dispensaries and almost as many licensed grow facilities as California, despite the latter having 10 times Oklahoma’s population and having already legalized recreational marijuana years ago.

Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general praised the vote Tuesday, saying, “Regardless of where one stands on the question of marijuana legalization, the stark reality is that organized crime from China and Mexico has infiltrated Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry.”

The recreational marijuana measure voted on Tuesday would have allowed sales to residents 21and older and taxed them at 15%. Proceeds from the taxes would have been split among schools, drug treatment programs and state and local governments. It also would have allowed for the expungement of minor marijuana-related criminal convictions.

According to the pro-legalization advocates, about 4,500 Oklahomans are arrested annually over small amounts of marijuana. Ryan Kiesel, a senior adviser to Yes on 820, said expungement of criminal records must still be fought for.

“We have thousands of families being torn apart and thrown into chaos every year because a mom or a dad has a small amount of marijuana that would be legal in 21 other states and legal in Oklahoma for medical card holders,” he said.

Ahead of the vote, Drummond told the Tulsa-based Black Wall Street Times he was willing to look at making expungement easier.

“If it does not pass, I do think in the spirit of criminal justice reform, marijuana possession and consumption should be addressed. And there should be a mechanism considered by the legislature that I’m happy to administer toward the expungement of those things,” he said.

America is more energy independent than ever

Rick Newman
·Senior Columnist
Tue, March 7, 2023

A recent Citibank research note got my attention.

“Total gross crude and other liquid exports hit a record of 11.128 million barrels per day, more than the total output of either Russia or Saudi Arabia,” Citi energy analysts wrote on March 1. “U.S. net crude imports fell to lows not seen since the 1950s.”

You won’t hear the Biden administration bragging about these fossil-fuel developments, but they’re welcome nonetheless. More U.S. energy production will put downward pressure on gasoline and electricity prices and make the United States less vulnerable against Russian efforts to use energy as a weapon.

Many Americans think U.S. “energy independence” is a thing of the past, overtaken by President Biden’s focus on green energy. But Citi is highlighting data showing that American dependence on foreign energy has continued to decline under President Biden, even besting levels reached under President Trump, who championed fossil fuels.

U.S. energy independence is a bit of a misnomer, since it implies the nation can produce all the energy it needs for its own consumption, without buying any from foreign countries. It doesn’t work like that. We import certain types of fuel to certain regions because it’s cheaper or more efficient than sending U.S. product there. Same with exports: U.S. producers can sometimes earn more selling overseas than at home. Energy markets are complex, and it doesn’t make sense to limit production or consumption to domestic sources.

But the degree of dependence on foreign energy does matter, and that trend has been dramatically improving for years. The fracking revolution produced a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas production beginning around 2011, and that has continued, with only a few interruptions (such as the COVID pandemic). In 2015, President Obama signed a law allowing the export of U.S. crude oil for the first time in 40 years. U.S. production went higher still, with the opening of new foreign markets triggering more drilling that coincidentally benefited Americans through lower prices.

In 2019, the United States became a net energy exporter for the first time since the 1950s. That means in terms of all forms of energy—oil, gas, coal, refined products and so on—the United States exports more than it imports, as measured in BTUs. The United States has remained a net energy exporter ever since. The trend didn’t change when Biden took office, even though he has bashed fossil fuels and signed sweeping legislation to boost green energy.

As a champion of green energy, Biden landed in a awkward spot last year as oil prices surged and gasoline hit $5 per gallon, enraging drivers. Biden urged U.S. energy companies to produce more oil and gas, ignoring basic economics weighing on the industry. Energy industry profitability was terrible for several years leading up to 2021, forcing drillers to invest less in new production and boost payouts to shareholders. The global push to replace carbon fuel with renewables further depressed new fossil-fuel investment. Biden likely knows all this, but it's politically easy to bash oil companies Americans love to hate.

Yet higher prices caused by tight global markets and Russia’s war in Ukraine are bringing more U.S. supply onto the market, anyway. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts U.S. oil production of 12.5 million barrels per day in 2023, inching up to 12.6 million barrels next year. That would slightly exceed the 2019 record of 12.3 million barrels per day. Natural gas is often a byproduct of oil drilling and will likely hit new production records this year and next, as well.

Adding renewable energy capacity improves energy independence, since solar power and wind on their own aren’t exportable. It’s possible to export some of the electricity renewable energy generates, but that’s not practical at scale. Renewables will likely rise from 22% of U.S. electricity production in 2022 to 26% by 2024, according to Intl. Energy Agency (IEA), with that share likely to continue rising.

Oil Independence: Good, for prices? A Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, gas station in late 2022. U.S. October 19, 2022. REUTERS/Aimee Dilger

None of this means energy prices will plunge, unfortunately. Sanctions relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are beginning to bite, with Russian production of both oil and natural gas likely to decline this year. “The well-supplied oil balance at the start of 2023 could quickly tighten as western sanctions affect Russian production and exports,” the IEA advised in late February. China’s reopening after a year of COVID-related shutdowns could also boost global demand for energy and push prices up. Oil prices are set in global markets and the United States can only affect that by adding to global supply.

U.S. energy firms are also unwilling to subsidize low prices by overproducing, as they did during the years leading up to the COVID pandemic in 2020. That especially applies to refineries, which are costly to build and upgrade. U.S. refining capacity has actually declined slightly since 2020, as operators close underperforming facilities.

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said last year he didn’t think the industry would ever build another U.S. oil refinery because regulation is too difficult and the return on investment takes too long. That bottleneck will put a floor on gasoline prices and raise the spread between the wholesale price of oil and the retail price of refined products such as gasoline. Biden has complained about higher profit margins for refiners, but he hasn't done anything to cut the red tape or the cost of building new refineries.

As U.S. production of U.S. oil and natural gas hits new records, so do exports. Biden has threatened to halt U.S. energy exports if domestic prices get too high, but that’s populist posturing with no teeth. The simple idea is that exporting more leaves less energy for Americans, and therefore raises prices. But U.S. drillers would also produce less, and maybe a lot less, if they couldn’t earn money through exports. And again, the biggest effect on retail prices isn’t the supply of raw energy, it’s tight refining capacity.

Those additional U.S. energy exports, meanwhile, are helping Europe weather the near-total shutoff of natural gas from Russia. And more U.S. oil in world markets will help keep prices steady if Russian production drops off, as expected. The United States can’t keep all its energy to itself, but adding to global capacity is good for Americans, anyway.

Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @rickjnewman

U.S. Supreme Court won't decide scope of wage-and-hour class actions


Daniel Wiessner
Mon, March 6, 2023
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday again declined to settle a split among appeals courts over whether federal wage law allows workers to bring nationwide class action-style lawsuits, turning away a case involving FedEx Corp.

The justices denied a petition by FedEx security specialist Christa Fischer for review of a July ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said because her overtime pay lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania, only workers from that state could join.

Companies and business groups have been pushing courts to limit nationwide wage-and-hour lawsuits, citing a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that said people who lived outside California could not join a product liability case filed in state court against Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

The 3rd Circuit in the FedEx case joined the 6th and 8th Circuits, which in 2021 had both said courts lack jurisdiction over residents of other states.

But the 1st and 7th Circuits have gone the other way, saying the wage law was designed to enable large-scale collective actions against companies operating in multiple states. The Supreme Court last year declined to take up appeals of those cases.

Tennessee-based FedEx did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did lawyers for Fischer.

Fischer in a 2019 lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court alleged FedEx misclassified security specialists across the country as independent contractors rather than its employees and deprived them of overtime pay required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Under the FLSA, workers can file "collective actions" that are similar to class action lawsuits but have some key procedural differences, including that other workers must opt in to be included.

A federal judge in 2020 refused to allow FedEx employees from New York and Maryland to join the case, citing the Bristol-Myers ruling. The 3rd Circuit upheld that ruling last year, prompting Fischer's Supreme Court petition.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business lobby, had urged the 3rd Circuit to rule for FedEx. In a 2021 amicus brief, the group said allowing nationwide FLSA lawsuits would subject employers to uncertainty and encourage workers to "forum shop" by filing in plaintiff-friendly courts.

The case is Fischer v. Federal Express Corp, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 22-396.

For Fischer: Adam Hansen of Apollo Law

For FedEx: David Salmons of Morgan Lewis & Bockius

Read more:

Cases to Watch: Bid to limit nationwide FLSA class actions is reaching appeals courts

Court greenlights nationwide wage lawsuits amid bid to limit their scope

Chamber asks 3rd Circuit to limit nationwide FLSA collectives

Out-of-state workers barred from FLSA action against FedEx – appeals court

U.S. Supreme Court again limits where companies can be sued

'We are going to keep showing up.' Activists rally at Oklahoma Capitol for gun reforms

Aspen Ford and Jessie Christopher Smith, Oklahoman
Tue, March 7, 2023 

More than 50 gun safety advocates rallied Monday morning at the Oklahoma Capitol to demand legislators strengthen the state's gun laws.

Members and volunteers of the Oklahoma chapter of Moms Demand Action ― a nationwide movement that started after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting more than 10 years ago ― and the parent nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety gathered on the steps of the Capitol to call for tightening gun loopholes and passing commonsense gun reform.

"I know we’re dealing with a false reputation here that we’re trying to take people’s guns, but we're gun owners," said Beth Furnish, a volunteer leader for the Moms Demand Action chapter. "Like a lot of Oklahomans, we have firearms at home. We have veterans. We have a broad representation of concerned people that are just fed up with lawmakers not doing anything to address gun violence that’s impacting people’s lives."

Members and volunteers of the Oklahoma chapter of Moms Demand Action and the parent nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety gathered Monday on the steps of the Capitol to call for tightening gun loopholes and passing common sense gun reform.

More:How America’s schools have changed since deadliest mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary

Several other participants at the rally voiced similar feelings, emphasizing that they were not opposed to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the right to bear arms, but felt that passing "reasonable regulations" would help lessen higher rates of gun violence.

Cacky Poarch, 55, said she joined Oklahoma's Moms Demand Action after the Parkland shooting in 2018, and feels compelled by the mass shootings she sees in media reports to advocate for more gun safety.

"We, of course, have seen so many school shootings over and over and over," Poarch said. "Unfettered access to firearms makes us less safe on so many levels."

Joshua Harris-Till, a cousin of the late Emmett Till, also joined the group Monday. He said people in his family have been affected by gun violence and believes the state needs to do a better job preventing people with histories of mental health issues from having such easy access to firearms.

"My two little brothers were 13 and 10 the first time they got shot, and I lost my sister to that," Harris-Till said. "It’s something that’s extremely important. And there’s multiple stories for folks in our organization who relate to things like that, who don’t want other families to go through what they’ve gone through."

Harris-Till told The Oklahoman he believes that many of the state's legislators, who are overwhelmingly Republican, don't necessarily advocate so fiercely for loosening gun restrictions because they believe the bills will make it out of committee, but because they want to remain part of a national narrative and need to "prove they're more 2A than the next guy" to their constituents.

"It’s not like their constituents are saying, 'Hey, we need more pro-gun bills'; it’s them saying, 'Hey, I have to be pro-gun to be reelected,'" Harris-Till said, attributing the state's hyper-partisan focus on guns to "demagoguery."

Moms Demand Action members rally Monday on the south plaza of the Capitol.

State Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater, championed a bill that would repeal the state's 2020 anti-red flag law and allow for "extreme risk protection orders" that prohibit or temporarily remove firearms from an individual if they pose a threat to themselves or others. Ranson said the bill never even had a committee hearing.

“But I wanted to start the conversation," Ranson said. "I think we need to have common sense gun laws so that way everyone is safe, but not just gun owners.”

Ranson said she is often discouraged by the state's high rate of domestic abuse and increasingly vitriolic rhetoric against teachers who, under some proposals, could even be asked to carry firearms in place of security personnel. Ranson believes it would be unhealthy for both the teachers and the students to have the dynamics of their classroom relationship complicated by a gun.

"At some point, people have to understand the logic in the way we treat each other," Ranson said. "I just feel like there will be a time when things balance out and the pendulum will swing back and we’ll be able to find some common sense gun laws that we can put in place."

State Sen. Julia Kirt was originally scheduled to speak at the rally Monday, but could not attend due to illness. Her office, however, provided a statement of support for the organizers.

"I always appreciate having people in the People's House voicing their concerns and sharing the common sense reforms they see to issues like gun violence," Kirt's statement read.

Candace Frates, of Tulsa, claps Monday at Moms Demand Action rally on the south plaza of the Capitol.

Some advocates consider SB 1046 ― a bill proposed by state Sen. Darrell Weaver and state Rep. Robert Manger that would make the first conviction of violence against a pregnant woman a felony ― as the most viable proposal out of Oklahoma's current Legislature.

But activists with Moms Demand Action hope that continued advocacy will bring awareness to other statewide proposals.

"The gun violence doesn’t stop, so we are going to keep showing up," Furnish said. "Until lawmakers respond to the people in this state, we’re going to keep coming. We make our presence known, we’re watching, we’re demanding that they do something."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Organizers, volunteers rally at Oklahoma Capitol to demand gun reform