CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Malaysian ex-PM Muhyiddin arrested, faces graft charges

 Malaysian new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin thumbs up during a press conference at prime minister's office in Putrajaya, Malaysia on March 9, 2020. Muhyiddin arrived Thursday, March 9, 2023 at the anti-graft agency office for a second time in a month over alleged corruption in the award of government projects under his rule. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)

Thu, March 9, 2023

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was arrested Thursday and will be brought to court to face corruption charges, the anti-graft agency said.

Muhyiddin, who led Malaysia from March 2020 until August 2021, will be the country's second leader to be indicted after leaving office. Ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak was hit with multiple graft charges after he lost in 2018 general elections and began a 12-year prison term in August after losing his final appeal in the first of several trials.

The anti-graft agency said Muhyiddin, 75, will face several charges Friday related to alleged abuse and money laundering linked to government projects awarded under his 17-month rule. It said Muhyiddin was detained shortly after he arrived at the agency for the second time in three weeks to answer questions about an economic stimulus program for ethnic Malay contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took power after November's general elections, had ordered a review of government projects approved by past administrations that allegedly did not follow the rules. He has denied the case against Muhyiddin was politically motivated, telling local media the investigation was independently carried out by the anti-graft agency.


“If you said all cases are politically motivated, then how are we going to arrest people for big corruption cases?” Anwar was cited as saying by the Malay Mail, an online news portal.

Two senior leaders from Muhyiddin's Bersatu party were also recently charged with graft. The anti-graft agency froze Bersatu's bank accounts amid investigations into alleged illegal proceedings.

Muhyiddin, who leads a strong Islamic-dominated opposition, has denied any wrongdoing and accused Anwar's government of trying to crush the opposition ahead of state elections.

Earlier Thursday, a large crowd of supporters gathered outside the anti-graft agency building, chanting “Fight! Fight!” and “Allahu Akbar (God is great)” amid speculation that Muhyiddin would be arrested and charged.

Bersatu leaders accused Anwar’s government of political persecution to tarnish the opposition. Muhyiddin, 75, got out of his car and prayed with his supporters before entering the building.

Anwar and Muhyiddin battled for the premiership after November general elections produced a hung parliament. The country’s king later appointed Anwar as prime minister after he formed a unity government with several smaller parties. Anwar's strength will be put to test in elections in six states in the coming months.

The coming EV batteries will sweep away fossil fuel transport, with or without net zero

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Tue, March 7, 2023 

New electric car batteries could lengthen ranges to a thousand miles or more

 - Michaela Handrek-Rehle/Bloomberg

The Argonne National Laboratory in the US has essentially cracked the battery technology for electric vehicles, discovering a way to raise the future driving range of standard EVs to a thousand miles or more. It promises to do so cheaply without exhausting the global supply of critical minerals in the process.

The joint project with the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) has achieved a radical jump in the energy density of battery cells. The typical lithium-ion battery used in the car industry today stores about 200 watt-hours per kilo (Wh/kg). Their lab experiment has already reached 675 Wh/kg with a lithium-air variant.

This is a high enough density to power trucks, trains, and arguably mid-haul aircraft, long thought to be beyond the reach of electrification. The team believes it can reach 1,200 Wh/kg. If so, almost all global transport can be decarbonised more easily than we thought, and probably at a negative net cost compared to continuation of the hydrocarbon status quo.

The Argonne Laboratory in Chicago is not alone in pushing the boundaries of energy storage and EV technology. The specialist press reports eye-watering breakthroughs almost every month. America, Europe, China and Japan are all in a feverish global race for battery dominance – or survival – and hedge funds are swarming over the field.

I highlight this paper because US national labs have AAA credibility. The study is peer-reviewed and has just appeared in the research journal Science. Their solid-state battery has achieved the highest energy density yet seen anywhere in the world. And sometimes you have to pick on one to tell a larger story.

The science paper says the process can “theoretically deliver an energy density that is comparable to that of gasoline”, a remarkable thought that slays some stubborn shibboleths. It is not for today, but it is not for the remote future either. It typically takes five or so breakthroughs of this kind in battery technology to reach manufacturing.

Professor Larry Curtiss, the project leader, told me that his battery needs no cobalt. That eliminates reliance on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which accounts for 74pc of the world’s production and has become a Chinese economic colony for the extraction of raw materials.

Beijing has already gained a lockhold on the supply chain through ownership or control over three quarters of the DRC’s major cobalt mines. Russia is the world’s third. It is planning to raise that share by tearing up the marine bed off the Pacific coast.

Reports by the United Nations and activist groups leave no doubt that cobalt mining in the DRC is an ecological and human disaster, with some 40,000 children working for a pittance in toxic conditions for small ‘artisanal’ mines. It has become a byword for North-South exploitation.

Needless to say, the horrors of the cobalt supply chain have been seized on by fossil “realists” (i.e. vested interests) and Putin’s cyber-bots to impugn the moral claims of the green energy transition. The Argonne-IIF technology should make it harder to sustain that line of attack.

Prof Curtiss said the current prototype is based on lithium but does not have to be. “The same type of battery could be developed with sodium. It will take more time, but can be done,” he said. Switching to sodium would halve the driving range but it would still be double today’s generation of batteries.

Sodium is ubiquitous. There are deposits in Dorset, Cheshire, or Ulster. The US and Canada have vast salt lakes. Sodium can be produced cheaply from seawater in hot regions via evaporation. There is no supply constraint.

This knocks out another myth: that the EV revolution is impossible on a planetary scale because there either is not enough lithium, or not enough at viable cost under free market conditions in states aligned with the Western democracies. (The copper shortage is more serious, but there may be solutions for that as well using graphene with aluminium).

The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for lithium will rise 20-fold by 2040 if we rely on existing battery technology. The Australians are the world’s biggest producers today. But the greatest long-term deposits are in the Lithium Triangle of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, which are in talks to create an OPEC-style lithium cartel. China’s Tianqui owns 22pc of the Chilean group SQM, the world’s second-biggest lithium miner.

A lithium recycling industry will mitigate the problem. In the end, lithium can be extracted from seawater. It is highly diluted at 180 parts per billion but research suggests that it could be isolated for as little as $5 a kilo. If so, the lithium scare is just another of a long list of seemingly insurmountable barriers that fall away with time. The march of clean-tech is littered with such false scares.

For readers with a better grip on chemistry than me, the Argonne-IIF uses a solid electrolyte made from a ceramic polymer based on nanoparticles. This does require expensive materials.

It achieves a reaction of four molecules at room temperature instead of the usual one or two. It is able to extract oxygen from the surrounding air to run the reaction, solving a problem that has held back development for a decade. It can operate over a thousand cycles of charging and discharging. It is safer and less likely to catch fire than today's batteries.

What the Argonne-IIF battery and other global breakthroughs show collectively is that energy science is moving so fast that what seemed impossible five years ago is already a discernible reality, and that we will be looking at a very different technological landscape before the end of this decade.

Germany and Italy last week succeeded in blocking EU’s plans for ban on petrol and diesel sales by 2035. They might just as well bark at the moon or command the waves to recede. Moore’s Law and the learning curve of new technology has already sealed the fate of the combustion engine – with or without net zero.

The legacy companies cannot save their sunk investment in fossil motors – unless the EU retreats into fortress protectionism, which would be economic suicide. To try would be to guarantee the total destruction of Europe’s car industry. The only hope of saving it is to go for broke on electrification before global rivals run away with the prize.

The coming battery technology kills the case for hydrogen in cars, vans, buses, or trucks, and perhaps also for trains and aircraft, whether it is “green” from wind and solar via electrolysis or “blue” from natural gas with carbon capture. The energy loss involved makes no sense. It is much cheaper and more efficient to electrify wherever possible.

Clean hydrogen is too valuable to squander. We need it to replace dirty hydrogen used in industry. We need it for fertilisers, green steel, container shipping, and long-term storage in saline aquifers to back up renewables during a windless Dunkelflaute. We do not need it for road transport.

My advice to corporate bosses and ministers: keep up with the world’s scientific literature, or you will be massacred.

This article is an extract from The Telegraph’s Economic Intelligence newsletter;  exclusive insight from two of the UK’s leading economic commentators – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Jeremy Warner – 

SHE IS CRT

US Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison honoured with new stamp

HER BOOKS ARE BANNED IN GOP STATES

Anca Ulea
Wed, 8 March 2023


US Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison honoured with new stamp

American writer and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison’s photo will now be seen on letters sent across the United States, as her likeness has been immortalised on a stamp by the US Postal Service this week.

Morrison, who became the first black woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, died in 2019 at 88 years old. Her legacy is being honoured with a monthslong series of events at Princeton University, where Morrison taught for almost two decades.

The stamp was unveiled in a tribute at Princeton, which opened with a recording of Morrison’s voice reciting a passage on New York City’s Harlem neighbourhood from her 1992 novel “Jazz”.

“Nobody says it’s pretty here; nobody says it’s easy either. What it is is decisive, and if you pay attention to the street plans, all laid out, the City can’t hurt you,” Morrison’s voice said in the auditorium.

Later, an all-Black acapella group sang the popular hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing," which is known in the US as the Black national anthem.

Our new stamp will be seen by millions, and forever remind us of the power of her words and the ideas she brought into the world.

The guest speakers included former US President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, as well as the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. President Obama had presented Morrison with the Medal Of Freedom in 2012.

President Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Toni Morrisson - 2012 

- Mandel Ngan/AFP

Pritha Mehra, the chief information officer and executive vice president of the US Postal Service said that the postal service is proud to commemorate Morrison.

“Our new stamp will be seen by millions, and forever remind us of the power of her words and the ideas she brought into the world,” she said.

Morrison’s novels explored the black experience in America, addressing the painful legacy of slavery in the United States and its effects on contemporary black society. She wrote boldly about topics that other authors avoided, like racism and abuse.

Her 1970 novel “The Bluest Eye” has been targeted by countless book bans in some US states for depicting topics like racism, incest and child molestation.

Morrison’s commemoration on the stamp comes amid renewed calls for books to be banned across the US, fuelled by conservative politicians. It also comes amid a global movement for certain offensive language to be expunged from new printings of old books.

At Tuesday’s tribute, Oprah Winfrey talked about starting her book club in 1996 with Morrison’s novel from the same year “Song of Solomon” in mind.

“Over the years, I selected four of Toni Morrison’s books to read as a community, more than any other author,” she said in a pre-recorded video shown at the tribute.

Winfrey recalled meeting Morrison on her talk show: “I shared with her that, ‘Ms. Morrison, sometimes your books are challenging and difficult for some people to read.' And she said, ‘Well think about how difficult they are to write.'"

Princeton's President Christopher Eisgruber stressed that Morrison's legacy will continue to be an inspiration for the university, its community and most importantly, black artists and artists of colour.

“She was a writer of rare genius, brilliant originality and genuinely historic importance,” Eisgruber said.

A GOP war on 'woke'? 

Most Americans view the term as a positive, USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds

Susan Page, USA TODAY
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Republican presidential hopefuls are vowing to wage a war on "woke," but a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the word as a positive attribute, not a negative one.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed say the term means "to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices." That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans.

Overall, 39% say instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, "to be overly politically correct and police others' words." That's the view of 56% of Republicans.

The findings raise questions about whether Republican campaign promises to ban policies at schools and workplaces they denounce as "woke" could boost a contender in the party's primaries but put them at odds with broader public opinion in the general election.

Independents, by 51%-45%, say "woke" means being aware of social injustice, not being overly politically correct.

“Most Americans understand that to be woke is to be tuned in to injustices around us,” said Cliff Young of Ipsos. "But for a key segment of Republicans who make up the Trump-DeSantis base, 'woke' is a clear trigger for the worst of the politically correct, emerging multicultural majority."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reacts after publicly signing HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference in April.

A new rallying cry in the culture wars

In the early 20th century, "woke" was generally used as a call for Black people around the world to "wake up" to racial oppression. After the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the term gained wider usage to describe awareness of the continuing legacy of racial discrimination and systematic oppression.

Now conservatives have adopted the term as a rallying cry in the culture wars, signaling their opposition to everything from the teaching of the ongoing effects of slavery to the use of gender-neutral pronouns.

More: 'Woke mind virus'? 'Corporate wokeness'? Why red America has declared war on corporate America

Opinion: Tired Trump fades at CPAC while DeSantis rises at Reagan Library

"We will never surrender to the woke mob," Ron DeSantis declared in his victory speech when he won a second term as Florida governor in November. Former President Donald Trump last week accused President Joe Biden of engineering "a woke takeover of the entire federal government."

Even South Carolina's Sen. Tim Scott, a Black man who discusses how racism has affected his life, has derided "woke corporations" and "woke prosecutors" as negative forces in American life.

Trump has announced his campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination, and DeSantis is seen as likely to be his leading challenger, although he hasn't formally announced his candidacy. Scott has also indicated he is considering a presidential bid.

Republicans, by 60%-14%, say being described as "woke" would be an insult, not a compliment. Independents – by 42%-32% – agree. Democrats, by 46%-25%, say it would be a compliment.

Across party lines, about 1 in 4 say they don't know enough about what the term means to judge whether it is a compliment or a slur.

The USA TODAY/Ipsos poll of 1,023 adults was taken Friday through Sunday using KnowledgePanel, Ipsos' online probability-based panel. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
'Critical race theory' and the power of words

On issues of race and gender, language matters.

Americans by close to 3-1, 72%-26%, support teaching "the ongoing effects of slavery and racism in the United States" in public schools, a question asked of half the sample. That includes overwhelming numbers of Democrats and independents and close to half of Republicans (46%).

But in response to a different question asked of the other half of the sample, those surveyed oppose by 53%-41% the teaching of "critical race theory," which holds that systemic racism is institutionalized in America to the advantage of white people.

The phrase particularly resonates among Republicans, who by 81%-15%, oppose the teaching of critical race theory in public schools.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at a town hall campaign event, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Exeter, New Hampshire.

Americans overwhelmingly oppose, by 76%-21%, efforts by state governments to ban certain books from school classrooms and libraries. Last year the nonprofit group PEN America reported that school districts in 26 states had moved to ban some books, often ones that relate to race or gender identity.

The opposition to state bans crosses party lines, including 86% of Democrats, 78% of independents and 66% of Republicans.

On gender, a wide partisan divide

The partisan divide is gaping on matters involving gender.

Overall, those surveyed overwhelmingly oppose the use of gender-neutral pronouns to describe someone, 61%-36%.

But while almost all Republicans oppose gender-neutral pronouns, 87%-11%, Democrats support them by double-digits, 61%-37%.

The clashing views are similar over whether people should be able to identify as someone other than "man" or "woman" on government documents such as passports and birth certificates. Overall, Americans oppose the idea by 61%-36%.

While 88% of Republicans oppose it, however, 60% of Democrats support it.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A GOP war on 'woke'? Most Americans see term as positive: Ipsos Poll

Latin America poised to become renewable energy giant: report

Joshua Howat Berger
Thu, March 9, 2023


Latin America is poised to become a major renewable energy producer, with nearly a billion solar panels' worth of large-scale clean-electricity projects slated to come online in the next seven years, a report found Thursday.

In welcome good news for the climate-change race, researchers said Latin American countries had more than 319 gigawatts of utility-scale solar- and wind-power projects due to be launched by 2030 -- equal to nearly 70 percent of the region's total current electrical capacity from all sources combined.

"Rich in wind and solar resources, Latin America has the potential to be a global leader for renewable energy," said the report by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a US-based non-profit that tracks clean-energy development.

The new projects -- which include planned installations and those already under construction -- would expand Latin America's current utility-scale solar- and wind-power capacity by more than 460 percent, it found.

That makes the region a "global standout" on renewables, said Kasandra O'Malia, project manager at GEM.

"We're already seeing a big upswing. And if you look at all the projects that are planned, it's just this big, exponential-looking explosion," she told AFP.

Even if not every planned project gets built, the region appears to be at an inflexion point, with even more projects likely to be announced in the coming years, she said.

Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, is leading the green-energy boom, with 27 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and wind plants already operating, and another 217 gigawatts of capacity slated to come online by 2030.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, has vowed to expand clean energy and restore Brazil's leadership role on climate change, after four years under far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

But the roots of the boom go back further, to a 2012 law that incentivized solar energy in Brazil by allowing private producers to sell electricity directly to the grid, according to energy expert Roberto Zilles.

"Today, it's cheaper to produce your own energy" than buy electricity, Zilles, the director of the University of Sao Paulo's Energy and Environment Institute, told AFP.

The report also highlighted developments in Chile -- traditionally a fossil-fuel importer, where wind and solar now represent 37 percent of total installed electricity capacity -- and Colombia, which has 37 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity slated to come online by 2030.

- Offshore wind, green hydrogen -

However, Mexico, the region's second-biggest economy, was singled out as a case for concern.

Mexico, an early adopter of renewable energy, is currently home to Latin America's largest solar and wind projects.

But progress has declined since 2021 energy reforms pushed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fossil-fuels champion who has made revitalizing state oil company Pemex a cornerstone of his administration.

"Mexico has stalled," the report said.

"Even if all prospective projects were to come online, the country would only reach approximately 70 percent of its pledge to bring 40 gigawatts of solar and wind by 2030."

The report found Latin America has especially big potential as a producer of offshore wind energy.

It also said green energy exports could be a potential economic windfall, whether by sending surplus electricity to other countries or using renewable energy to produce green hydrogen for export.

Renewable energy has boomed worldwide as prices for solar panels and wind turbines have plunged -- a trend furthered over the past year by soaring fossil fuel costs driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The International Energy Agency found in a December report that renewables will become the largest source of global electricity generation by early 2025, surpassing coal.

But the transition needs to be faster if the world is to meet the Paris climate accord's target of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, O'Malia said.

She called on the world's major energy consumers -- North America, Europe and China -- to follow Latin America's example.

"The rest of the globe is not doing their share," she said.

jhb/dw

DOMINION IS A CANADIAN COMPANY

Dominion: Fox News needs to 'retract the lies and tell its audience the truth'

Dareh Gregorian and Jane C. Timm
Wed, March 8, 2023

Fox News has acknowledged in court that its on-air claims that Dominion Voting Services "rigged" the 2020 election were false — but it still hasn't acknowledged that to its audience, the voting machine company charged in a court filing Wednesday.

After giving a platform to allies of former President Donald Trump falsely claiming Dominion "flipped" millions of votes to Joe Biden, the network "still refuses to level with its audience," lawyers for Dominion said in papers filed in Delaware Superior Court.

Dominion said that Fox has acknowledged in their own court filings and through testimony that there was no evidence to back the bogus claims of a number of Fox hosts and guests such as Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell.

"Despite having conceded it was all a lie, and despite internal documents proving they knew it was a lie all along, Fox still will not retract the lies and tell its audience the truth," the company argued, pointing a finger at Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch in Sydney (Brendon Thorne / Bloomberg via Getty Images file )

"What is Rupert Murdoch’s rationale for not retracting? Not that the truth is still in doubt. He admitted he 'never believed' that Dominion rigged the election. And he 'could have' stopped the defamatory statements from airing at the time “[b]ut I didn’t.' Yet he believes it is 'too late' to retract and refuses to apologize," the filing said.

It also noted that some skeptical hosts "stopped airing the allegations because they knew they would have to 'tell the truth' if they did so," and pointed to host Laura Ingraham.

The filing said she'd admitted at her deposition that by Nov. 12, she “'made the decision not to air the false allegations of Dominion.' (Of course, she did not tell her audience then the allegations were false—and still has not.)"

The filings came one day after the release of hundreds of pages of testimony, private text messages and emails from top Fox News journalists and executives that showed a network in crisis after it angered core viewers by reporting accurately on the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The documents have often showed that behind the scenes, Fox executives and hosts understood that what was on air was not in line with the truth:

In his sworn deposition in January, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch repeatedly said, "No" when asked, "[D]o you believe that today Fox should be telling people that Dominion committed election fraud by rigging the 2020 presidential election?" and "Do you think that today Fox should be telling people that Dominion's software and algorithms manipulated vote counts in the 2020 presidential election?" and other similar questions.

"That whole narrative that Sidney was pushing," host Sean Hannity said in his August 2022 deposition, "I did not believe it for one second."

"Sidney Powell is lying," host Tucker Carlson sent in a text message on Nov. 17, 2020, referring to the conservative lawyer who spread the Dominion claims.

“This stuff is so f------ insane. Vote rigging to the tune of millions? C’mon,” Fox Corporation executive Raj Shah said Nov. 20, 2020, urging a producer for Carlson's show to not spend too much time on the issue. (The producer, Alex Pfeifer, responded: "It is so insane but our viewers believe it so addressing again how her stupid venezuela affidavit isn't proof might insult them.")

Murdoch acknowledged in his January deposition that some hosts, including Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, had done more than just give a platform to the baseless claims of voter fraud. “Yes,” Murdoch said, according to another Dominion filing. “They endorsed.”

The documents were part of a trove of evidence collected by Dominion as part of its $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. The voting machine company sued Fox for defamation in March 2021, alleging it caused “severe damage” by giving oxygen to conspiracy theories it knew were false, including that Dominion equipment was used to rig the 2020 election for Biden, that it was tied to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and that it bribed U.S. government officials.

The voting system manufacturer also stressed the volume of communications it uncovered alerting Fox News and its executives to the false claims.

“It is not normal that executives receive constant communications from a defamation plaintiff during the course of the defamation, flagging the truth and begging the network to stop airing lies on the programs those executives oversee. It is not normal for an executive in the chain of command to receive so many such correspondences that he jokes he has them “tattooed on [his] body,” Dominion's lawyers wrote.

Fox’s reporting on Dominion and other election conspiracy theories came as the network was losing Trump-supporting viewers who were angry with the network for being the first to call Biden’s win in Arizona, a crucial swing state in the election.

Fox has denied wrongdoing and said it's "proud" of its election coverage — a statement the Dominion lawyers focus on in the filing, saying it sends the "unmistakable message that Fox stands by the lies."

In a statement, Fox accused Dominion of trying to "silence the press" and called the company's lawsuit "nothing more than another flagrant attack on the First Amendment."

"FOX News will continue to fiercely protect the free press as a ruling in favor of Dominion would have grave consequences for journalism across this country," its statement read.

Dominion said in the court filing that "Fox is trying to conflate telling the truth with knowingly spreading a lie. News outlets across the political spectrum — including Rupert Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal and New York Post — reported on the lies being told about Dominion, back in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election.

"But most of these media organizations reported the truth: that these lies were false," the filing added. "You cannot sue someone for reporting the truth. Fox, in stark contrast, in the accused broadcasts and social media posts at issue here, did not report the truth. Fox spread the lies."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

UH OH
France's EDF reports fresh crack in nuclear reactor pipe

Wed, 8 March 2023 


French energy group EDF has reported discovering a significant new crack in a cooling pipe at a nuclear power plant on the Channel coast, in the latest such incident to plague the energy sector.

The group has been beset by maintenance problems at its ageing fleet of reactors over the last year that has forced it to take more than a dozen offline for checks and emergency repairs.

The group last month reported a "serious corrosion problem" on an emergency cooling system at its Penly 1 plant in northern France which was among the 16 taken offline in the last year.

The report went largely unnoticed until it was covered in French media on Tuesday.

The new crack was 15.5 centimetres (six inches) long and up to 2.3 centimetres deep, covering around a quarter of the circumference of the pipe which is 2.7 centimetres thick, France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said late on Tuesday.

The regulator ordered EDF to "revise its strategy" of addressing the corrosion problems which could have major financial repercussions for the debt-laden state-owned utility as well as France's energy production capacity.

The country, once a leading electricity exporter in Europe, needed to import power from Germany and other neighbours over the winter because of the problems in its nuclear park, which normally supplies around 70 percent of its energy needs.

The crack at Penly does not pose an immediate danger to the environment or human life, the regulator said, given its location on a pipe system that is designed to be used to cool the reactor only in the event of an emergency.

"What is new... is the depth of the crack," nuclear safety expert Yves Marignac, who is an advisor to the ASN, told AFP.

The agency's deputy director, Julien Collet, said checks underway would likely take longer but they won't shut down all power plants at once.

"There won't be huge numbers of shutdowns for months, but there will be an impact on the length of shutdowns," he said.

EDF's debt ballooned to 64.5 billion euros ($68.6 billion) in 2022 while losses totalled 17.9 billion euros.

burs/rl/gw

Blackmail or common sense? German mayors on why they're striking deals with climate activists

Rosie Frost
Wed, 8 March 2023 


Across Germany, cities are striking deals with climate activists to stop roads from being blocked by protests.

In Hannover, Mayor Belit Onay, announced last week that he supports some of environmental protest group Last Generation’s demands. Not long after, the cities of Tübingen and Marburg followed suit.

The group is well known in Germany for its members glueing themselves to roads to highlight the need for tougher action against climate change.

“Last Generation has been, for almost a year now, putting up actions of civil disobedience in Germany, mostly in Berlin,” says Theo Schnarr, a member of the group.

“But in the last months, we also spread it to a lot of other towns and cities in the whole of Germany.”

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What has been agreed to and how has the public reacted?

Many people disagree with Last Generation’s method of protest but Schnarr says it creates a kind of “creative tension”. He adds that since they began this programme of civil disobedience, they have always been open to negotiation.

Last Generation’s demands differ when it comes to local mayors versus Germany’s government which can actually change laws and legislations.

Mayor Belit Onay wrote a letter to senior German lawmakers, which was posted on his Instagram account, saying he supports a call for speed limits on highways and a nationwide €9 public transport ticket.

He didn’t agree that citizen’s assemblies - one of Last Generation’s main demands - should have the power to legislate on climate action. Onay did say, however, that these bodies should be created to advise politicians.

Activists of the "Last Generation" stick themselves on a street during snowfall in Dresden, Germany. - Daniel Schaefer/dpa via AP, File

The Mayor of Hannover received criticism for his choice, with some saying the agreement was essentially blackmail.

“Some people say ‘Okay, did this mayor get blackmailed? Did he do more than he should do as a mayor?’,” says Schnarr.

“Others say, ‘Yeah, well, every mayor can just write a letter now and then the Last Generation will stop blocking their streets.’”

But Schnarr believes it was a “brave” letter to write, one that represents the collective action needed to tackle climate change.

“We are in contact with a lot of mayors already about this now. I think we can reach some kind of social tipping point here.”

Watch Greta Thunberg being carried away by police during anti-wind farm protest in Norway

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Why are mayors making agreements with climate activists?

The latest mayor to reach an agreement with the climate activists is Marburg’s Dr Thomas Spies from the Social Democrat Party (SPD).

“So in Marburg, there were a number of Last Generation ‘glueing campaigns’, almost daily in the week before last,” he tells Euronews Green.

“We called them, invited them to talk about what they actually want and whether we can find ways so that the citizens of the university town of Marburg and our buses can drive properly again.”

Spies says Last Generation wanted them to ask the Federal Government and the German Bundestag for three things: a citizens' council, speed limits and the return of the nationwide €9 public transport ticket.

Marburg would already like to be able to set its own speed limits - something municipalities in Germany can’t do.

“You can't do that - glue yourself to the road. But if I get upset about it, I won't get an inch further. If I speak to people and find a solution, one that meets the interests of the city in every way, that seems to me a sensible way to go,” says Spies.

So after seeing the letter from Hannover and realising their climate goals were already closely aligned with the protest group, the mayor made an agreement with Last Generation.

“The decision was easy to make,” Spies concludes.

“Do you look for an escalation that brings nothing but a lot of trouble? Or do you first try to talk to each other and see what it's all about?”

France's young people stand up against higher retirement age


Protesters march during a demonstration, Tuesday, March 7, 2023 in Paris. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across France took part Tuesday in a new round of protests and strikes against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64, in what unions hope will be their biggest show of force against the proposal. 

(AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

JADE LE DELEY
Thu, March 9, 2023

PARIS (AP) — Young people in France — including some who haven’t even entered the job market yet — are protesting Thursday against the government’s push to raise the retirement age.

Students plan to block access to some universities and high schools, and a youth-led protest is planned in Paris on Thursday, as part of nationwide strikes and demonstrations against the pension bill under debate in parliament.

For a generation already worried about inflation, uncertain job prospects and climate change, the retirement bill is stirring up broader questions about the value of work.

“I don’t want to work all my life and be exhausted at the end,” said Djana Farhaig, a 15-year-old who blocked her Paris high school with other students during a protest action last month. “It is important for us to show that the youth is engaged for its future.”

People in their teens and early 20s have taken part in protests against the retirement reform since the movement kicked off in January, but student groups and unions are seeking to call attention to young people's concerns Thursday.

President Emmanuel Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and make other changes he says are needed to keep the public pension system financially stable as the population ages. Opponents argue that wealthy taxpayers or companies should pitch in more to finance the system instead.

Quentin Queller, a 23-year-old student who attended an earlier round of protests, said, “64 is so far away, it is depressing.”

He questioned the idea that hard work equals happiness, arguing that “we should work less and have more free time.” He and others echoed concerns by older protesters that instead of working to live, France is moving toward a system where people would have to live for work.

At one protest, a teenage boy held a placard saying: “I don’t want my parents to die at work.”

Thomas Coutrot, an economist specializing in health and conditions of work, described a widespread sentiment that “work has become unbearable.”

“Young people perceive that the conditions of work are deteriorating and that workers don’t understand anymore why they work,” he said.

The young protesters include many supporters of the far-left France Unbowed party and other left-wing groups, but also others. They see it as a fundamental right to be able to live on a state pension, and perceive the bill as a rollback of hard-won social achievements.

Elisa Lepetit, 18, is already working part-time in a bar alongside her studies to become a teacher, and can’t afford to go on strike. But she supports the protests.

“I want to become a teacher, but I can’t see myself working until 64,” she said. “The goal after a lifetime of hard work is to be able to spend time with my family.”

Some take a more apocalyptic view, saying their time on Earth is already threatened by climate change. "Working until 67 when it will be over 55 degrees (Celsius) makes no sense,'' joked Anissa Saudemont, 29, whose job in the media sector is related to ecology.

While young people are often present at French protest movements, Paolo Stuppia, a sociologist at the Sorbonne and at California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt, said an especially large number are taking part in the campaign against the retirement bill.

They include people who also march for climate action, LGBTQ rights, or against racial and gender-based discrimination, Stuppia said, and who are making a link with a pension bill they also see as unfair.

“For young people, their future seems to be completely closed and this reform is part of a model they want to question,” Stuppia said.

France workers keep up the pressure after mass pensions protests

Alice Hackman with AFP bureaux
Wed, 8 March 2023 


French unions on Wednesday pressed a standoff with the government over a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul, with fuel deliveries, trains and flights disrupted for a second day following mass rallies.

Key sea ports were also blockaded, as dock workers were among those to join rolling strikes seeking to convince President Emmanuel Macron to reverse course on the bill he has championed.

The government says raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and stiffening the requirements for a full pension are essential to keep the system from sinking into deficit.

France lags behind most of its European neighbours, which have hiked the retirement age to 65 or above.

But the changes have faced stiff resistance in parliament and in the street since mid-January, with the opposition and unions charging the changes are unfair, especially for low-skilled workers and women.

Unions on Tuesday night called for an urgent meeting with the president after strikes hobbled the country and 1.28 million people took to the streets, according to official figures.

But the presidency has not yet directly responded to their request.

Unions have announced a new day of demonstrations for Saturday, and some have vowed to keep up walkouts with rolling indefinite strikes.

- 'Extra pressure' -

Eric Sellini, national coordinator of the CGT union federation at energy giant TotalEnergies, said workers at most fuel shipping sites were again on strike on Wednesday morning.

The FO union at the same company said the action was necessary to "put extra pressure on the government".

Production however did not appear to have stopped at the refineries, and TotalEnergies has said its petrol stations are well stocked.

In the transport sector, national railway operator SNCF said more than half of high-speed trains had been cancelled, with only one train in 10 operating between provinces.

International rail travel remained slightly affected, with three out of four Eurostar trains running.

One in five Air France flights did not take off, with more hassle due at airports nationwide on Thursday and Friday as air traffic controllers keep up their strike.

Disgruntled dock workers were preventing access to several ports including the key hubs of Marseille on the Mediterranean and Le Havre on the Channel, the CGT said.

The port blockages have prevented new deliveries by sea of liquified natural gas, though the hydrocarbon continues to flow into France through pipelines from Norway and Spain.

- Cabinet 'door open' -

Strikers in the energy sector have since Tuesday staged wildcat power cuts, plunging certain sites across the country into darkness.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran said on Wednesday morning that officials remained open to dialogue as the bill makes its way through parliament.

"The government's door is more than open," Veran told RTL radio.

But "we respect the institutions," he said. "The government and prime minister are leading the text through parliament."

The reform is now being debated in the upper-house Senate, with a vote by both houses of parliament expected by the middle of the month or by March 26 at the latest.

The government hopes to be able to push through the bill with backing from the right, without having to resort to a controversial mechanism that would bypass a parliamentary vote but risk sparking more anger among voters.

Some two in three people are against the pensions reform, but around the same number believe it will be implemented, according to a poll by the Elabe survey group published on Monday.

Wednesday's protests were some of the biggest in decades and slightly bigger than a previous round of demonstrations on January 31.

burs-ah/sjw/yad

ISRAEL

Netanyahu airlifted to airport after protesters block road


 

TIA GOLDENBERG
Thu, March 9, 2023

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to be airlifted on Thursday to the country's main international airport for an official overseas trip after throngs of cars and protesters prevented him from driving there.

The demonstrations were part of nationwide protests underway for more than two months against Netanyahu and his government's contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Demonstrators had made blocking Netanyahu's route to the airport a centerpiece of their efforts, and the the optics of the Israeli leader having to make alternate travel plans were a win for the protest movement.

The helicopter ride, far from the snarling traffic triggered by the protest, was also sure to deepen Netanyahu's reputation as being out of touch with Israelis at a time when the country finds itself torn apart over the government plan and the economy is slowing.

Thursday's disruptions also disrupted a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd Austin, whose schedule was rearranged to keep his engagements close to the airport.

Austin briefly waded into the Israeli domestic turmoil during a news conference, where he repeated President Joe Biden's recent comments that the “genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances and on an independent judiciary.”

He also noted that Biden had stressed the need for “building consensus for fundamental changes.”

The protesters, launching a “day of resistance to dictatorship,” descended on the country's main international airport waving Israeli flags and blocking the road leading to the departures area with their cars.

Elsewhere, protesters blocked main intersections and scuffled with police in the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv and other cities. A small flotilla of paddleboards and kayaks tried to close off a main maritime shipping lane off the northern city of Haifa. Some protesters barricaded the Jerusalem offices of a conservative think tank helping to spearhead the judicial changes.

“Israel is on the verge of becoming an autocratic country. The current government is trying to destroy our democracy, and actually destroy the country,” said Savion Or, a protester in Tel Aviv.

The uproar over Netanyahu's legal overhaul has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises. Beyond the protests, which have drawn tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets and recently became violent, opposition has surged from across society, with business leaders and legal officials speaking out against what they say will be the ruinous effects of the plan. The rift has affected Israel's military, which is seeing unprecedented opposition from within its own ranks.

Later Thursday, the military said it suspended a pilot, identified in Israeli media as Col. Gilad Peled, until further notice, saying he had organized a pilots' protest.

“Unionizing to synchronize absence from service, though coming from good intentions, is forbidden,” said Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, Israel’s air force chief.

While some former top commanders have identified with the protesters, a group of 36 retired generals, including two former chiefs of staff, released a new letter saying the army must remain above politics and calling on reservists to show up for duty.

“We demand that discussion or acts of insubordination be avoided,” said the generals.

Netanyahu, who took office in late December after a protracted political stalemate, and his allies say the measures aim to rein in a court that has overstepped its authority. Critics say the overhaul will upset the country's delicate system of checks and balances and slide Israel toward authoritarianism.

Critics also say Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, is driven by personal grievances and that he could find an escape route from the charges through the overhaul. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, and says the legal changes have nothing to do with his trial.

Despite the demonstrations, Netanyahu and his allies have pledged to press ahead with a series of bills that would strip the Supreme Court of its ability to review legislation and give coalition politicians control over judicial appointments. An attempt by Israel's figurehead president to defuse the crisis through an alternative legal reform has so far been unsuccessful.

The protesters' main objective Thursday was to complicate Netanyahu's journey to the airport ahead of a state visit to Rome. Police, handing out traffic tickets as protesters held signs reading, “dictator: don’t come back!” said they would clear the demonstrators by force if they did not move. There were no immediate reports of serious violence.

Netanyahu, who met Austin before his departure, arrived to the airport in a police helicopter, circumventing the protesters, Israeli media reported. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.

Regular flights were not interrupted, an airport spokeswoman said, although some travelers said they had to leave their cars behind the protesters' convoy and reach the terminal by foot.

Netanyahu told the Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview before his trip that the protests illustrated a vibrant democracy. But speaking to reporters before takeoff, he suggested the protesters were looking to oust him.

“The goal here is to topple a government that was elected democratically,” Netanyahu said. “We won't let anyone disrupt Israeli democracy.”

The police, overseen by ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, pledged to prevent the disturbances and said they had made some 15 arrests.

Protesters descended onto Tel Aviv's main highway, blocking midday traffic as mounted police and a water cannon truck hovered nearby. Police allowed the protesters to remain on the highway for over an hour but cleared it in some places by force ahead of afternoon rush hour.

Red billboards festooning the highway read, “resistance to dictatorship is mandatory.”

Critics say Ben-Gvir, a key ally in Netanyahu’s coalition government who has dubbed the protesters “anarchists”, is trying to politicize the police.

“We support freedom of expression but not anarchy,” Ben-Gvir told reporters while touring the airport.

Thursday's demonstration in Tel Aviv, the country’s business center and its liberal heartland, was not nearly as large as one last week, when police cracked down on what had otherwise been peaceful protests, lobbing stun grenades and scuffling with demonstrators. Those protests ended with Netanyahu's wife Sara being extracted from a ritzy Tel Aviv hair salon where demonstrators had gathered after catching wind of her presence.

Netanyahu and his wife have gained notoriety for enjoying lavish lifestyles and living off the largesse of taxpayers and wealthy supporters.

Some pundits questioned why Netanyahu was flying to Italy for three days at a time of deep national crisis, suggesting the couple were actually traveling to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Netanyahu's schedule includes a meeting with Italy's prime minister on Friday, but he does not return until Saturday night.

Thursday's visit by Austin, who is on a Mideast tour, was also affected by the protests. His meetings were held at the airport and he did not travel to the Defense Ministry, located in the central Tel Aviv area where protests have been focused.

Mounted police are deployed as Israelis block a highway to protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

___

Associated Press reporters Ami Bentov in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Ilan Ben Zion and Isaac Scharf in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Israel Tensions Soar as Anti-Government Unrest Moves to Army


Ethan Bronner
Thu, March 9, 2023

Tens of thousands are protesting over the Israeli government’s move to cut the power of the Supreme Court, escalating tensions over a plan that’s sparked the biggest unrest in decades and seen army reservists threatening to withhold service.

The chief of the army expressed alarm over the warning from soldiers, while US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet his counterpart Yoav Gallant in a shortened visit near the airport rather than in central Tel Aviv to avoid the unrest, the Israeli defense ministry said.

There may be demonstrations in 20 cities across the country Thursday, according to plans released by organizers. Last week, confrontations between police and protesters turned violent in several areas. Water cannons were visible at several major junctions.

The upheaval has been building since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing coalition proposed handing the final say on the appointment of new judges to lawmakers and giving parliament the power to overrule high-court decisions. Opponents — mainly secular professionals as opposed to more traditional, religious Jews — see it as a threat to the Middle East’s most developed economy and democracy.

The shekel strengthened slightly by 11.44 a.m. in Tel Aviv, though has weakened 2.5% this year in part due to the unrest. There are reports investors are starting to move money out of the country, while Moody’s Investors Service joined other major credit assessors in warning of risks to Israel’s debt rating.

Netanyahu met Wednesday with President Isaac Herzog, who is seeking a compromise over the judicial overhaul. Demonstrators are taking to the streets twice a week.

“Certain cracks can form that will be irreparable in the future,” Herzi Halevi, head of the Israel Defense Forces, said after a meeting with reservist commanders. “Refusal is a red line, it should not be in the military protocol. It is unacceptable to discuss refusal, it is unacceptable to act on refusal.”

West Bank

The surge of domestic unrest has been accompanied by increased tensions in the West Bank. On Thursday, Israeli commandos operating near the city of Jenin sought to arrest what the army said was a cell of terrorists. The Palestinian health ministry said three were killed.

Some 78 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year, the most for that period since 2000, according to the Palestinian health ministry. At the same time, 14 Israelis were killed in the West Bank, also the most in some two decades, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.

--With assistance from Gwen Ackerman.

Israel judicial reforms: Ex-Mossad chief Yatom warns of 'dictatorship'

Issued on: 08/03/2023 - 

13:08

THE INTERVIEW © FRANCE 24
By: Marc Perelman

In an interview with FRANCE 24 from Tel Aviv, former Mossad chief Danny Yatom expressed deep concern at the prospect of Israel becoming a "dictatorship". For weeks, Israel has been rocked by a wave of protests against a bill that would curtail the independence of the country's highest court. Yatom claimed the bill was an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "run away from the trial he is facing" on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Yatom also criticised Netanyahu's coalition partners for backing the legislation.

At least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and 13 Israelis have died in attacks since the start of 2023. Asked if a third Intifada is under way, former Mossad chief Yatom said: "I don't think that anyone can answer precisely," but insisted Israel will continue to fight terrorism "without any limitation" and make sure its "people will be safe wherever they go, including the West Bank".

However, the Israeli government "should speak about what it intends to do in order to make the lives of the Palestinians easier", he added.

Yatom also regretted the events that took place in Huwara on February 26. In this West Bank town, Israeli settlers set homes and cars on fire, resulting in one Palestinian being shot dead and many injured. The rampage came in response to the murder of two Israeli brothers by a Palestinian.

"The government cannot allow the Israelis to take the law into their own hands (...) Such an event should not happen again because it encourages the extremists of both sides," he concluded.