Mexican president slams US lawmakers for suggesting military action against cartels


Julia Shapero
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador slammed U.S. lawmakers on Thursday for suggesting military action against Mexican drug cartels, after two Americans were killed in a kidnapping across the border last week.

“We are not going to allow any foreign government to intervene, much less a foreign government’s armed forces,” López Obrador told reporters during a press conference.

“We are not a protectorate of the United States, nor a colony of the United States,” he added. “Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign state.”

Four Americans were kidnapped by armed men just across the border in Mexico last week, after traveling to obtain a medical procedure. Two of the Americans died in the kidnapping, while one was injured and another remained unharmed. A Mexican citizen was also killed in the initial shootout.

A Mexican cartel, known as the Gulf cartel, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, according to The Associated Press. The group condemned the violence in a recent letter obtained by the AP and said it planned to turn over those involved to the authorities.

In the wake of the kidnapping, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that he was prepared to introduce legislation to designate certain Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and “set the stage to use military force if necessary.”

“I would tell the Mexican government if you don’t clean up your act, we’re going to clean it up for you,” he told Fox News on Monday.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who introduced a resolution in January to allow for the authorization of force against cartels in Mexico, doubled down on his effort following the kidnapping.

“Our goal is to help the Mexican people rid themselves of violent cartels and the corrupt politicians who take their money,” Crenshaw said in response to a critical tweet from the Mexican senate’s majority leader. “If you’re against that, I’m against you.”

However, such military action would require an Authorized Use of Military Force that would have to pass a divided Congress and be signed into law by President Biden, who has previously committed to working with Mexico to stop illegal drug trafficking.

US Fed report finds small firms continue recovery from pandemic hit

Wed, March 8, 2023
By Michael S. Derby

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. small businesses continued to mend from the coronavirus pandemic last year even as these firms faced considerable challenges from high inflation and scarce labor, a report released by the Cleveland Federal Reserve on behalf of the 12 regional central banks, said Wednesday.

But even as these small firms saw better times in 2022 relative to the prior couple of years, business conditions were still on balance softer than those that prevailed before the pandemic first struck three years ago, according to the latest Small Business Credit Survey for 2022.

For the first time since the 2020 survey, small firms “were more likely to report that revenues and employment levels increased rather than decreased in the past 12 months, and the share of firms reporting that they were operating profitably rose substantially year-over-year.”

The recovery of firms last year came as high inflation created challenges for many survey respondents. Getting workers in a tight labor market was also an issue faced by many of the firms.

The report said that the central bank survey polled 8,000 firms across the country with 500 employees or fewer. It noted that these small businesses represent 99.7% of the totality of American employers.

Small firms often face challenging business circumstances without the access to credit larger firms can tap to navigate the ups and downs of the economy. The report arrives as the Federal Reserve has dramatically increased the cost of capital as it seeks to lower high levels of inflation, as many worry those increases could push the economy into recession.

The report found that even as small firms were on the mend, they were worried about their respective futures.

“Firms in the most recent survey remain less likely than firms in pre-pandemic surveys to expect revenue or employment growth in the coming year,” the report said. “Financially, around four in five firms cited challenges related to rising costs, and close to half of firms reported difficulties paying operating expenses or navigating uneven cash flows,” the report added.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Fake bombs and failed coup: Moldova smolders on border of Russia's war


An employee works at a gas distribution plant in Chisinau

Fri, March 10, 2023
By Thomas Escritt

CHISINAU (Reuters) - A coup attempt, bomb hoaxes, internet hacks, fake conscription call-ups, mass protests: Moldova says it's had them all in the past year.

"We had an explosion of security threats starting February 24 last year," Interior Minister Ana Revenco told Reuters, describing a catalogue of crises she says has beset her nation and its pro-Western government since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This small European country, a former Soviet republic, is a unique geopolitical cauldron.

Moldova hosts the breakaway statelet of Transnistria - a sliver of land running along its eastern border with Ukraine that's controlled by pro-Russian separatists and garrisoned by Russian troops. The country is also home to the semi-autonomous region of Gagauzia, which is overwhelmingly pro-Russian too.

Moldovan officials paint a picture of a nation under constant duress from a misinformation and propaganda campaign orchestrated by Moscow which they say is designed to destabilize and undermine the government of President Maia Sandu, elected in 2020 on a promise to seek membership of the European Union.

Revenco said it was an "informational war".

"It puts a very strong pressure on the psychological resilience of the population," she added.

The Moldovan government did not provide evidence to support its allegations of a Russian-led dirty tricks campaign and Reuters was unable to independently verify its account of events.

The Kremlin, which has repeatedly dismissed the Moldovan accusations of fomenting unrest, didn't respond to a request for comment for this article.

"The leadership always focuses on everything anti-Russian," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month. "They are slipping into anti-Russian hysteria."

Nonetheless, Moscow has bristled at the possibility of Moldova - a country of 2.5 million people wedged between Ukraine and NATO member Romania - joining the EU.

Moldova's regions

 https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UKRAINE-CRISIS/MOLDOVA/lgpdkoqjmvo/chart.png

OVER 400 BOMB THREATS

The alleged coup plot was publicised last month by Moldovan authorities, who said that the plan had been for agitators to enter Moldova from Russia and other countries in the region and attempt to provoke violent clashes. Officials expelled two unidentified alleged agents last week in connection with the unrest, though did not give details about the scale of the plan or whether it had met with any success.

Defence ministry official Valeriu Mija said the aim of the plot was as much to inflict a blow to the morale of the country as to actually overthrow the government: "We believe this incident is a part of psychological warfare."

Bomb hoaxes have, meanwhile, become part of everyday life, consuming official resources, according to the interior ministry, which said authorities had received more than 400 fake threats by phone or email since last summer, requiring interventions by a total of 9,000 police officers.

Chisinau Airport, educational institutions, courts, hospitals and shopping centres were among the hoax targets, the ministry said.

Moldovan authorities said a series of cyberattacks over the past year had seen some government websites temporarily crashed and the phones of several officials hacked.

"The peak was in August, attacks where the targets included a number of information systems here in the Ministry of Interior. To cut, as we say, our eyes and ears on the ground," Mija added. "Put that together with the fake bomb alerts, that is greatly testing our capabilities."

FAKE CONSCRIPTION NOTICES

Mounting tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine have raised the temperature in Moldova.

The main opposition Sor party denounces Sandu for taking the side of Ukraine, saying this increases the chance that Moldova could become embroiled in the conflict. It says it has collected 600,000 signatures demanding new elections.

During a protest in Moldova's capital last week attended by around 2,000 people, Marina Tauber - a former professional tennis player turned Sor lawmaker - led the crowd in anti-Sandu chants with a megaphone.

"She is trying to get involved our country in the war," the 36-year-old said. "We are a neutral country and we want peace."

The crowd chanted "Down with Maia Sandu!" and "Down with dictatorship!"

Officials in Sandu's government say they want to avoid being sucked into the conflict at all costs.

They say another tactic used by anti-government agitators is to circulate mocked-up conscription notices on social media, especially the Telegram messaging service, in an attempt to spread anxiety and sow the message that Moldova is heading towards war.

RUSSIAN TROOPS IN TRANSNISTRIA

An estimated 1,500 Russian troops are stationed in Transnistria, most of them recruited locally from Transnistrians with Russian passports.

Incoming Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean has said Russian troops should be expelled from the region, while Moscow warns that any attack on its troops there would be seen as an attack on Russia.

The Moldovan government faces a delicate balancing act.

Transnistria is home to the Cuciurgan power plant, which supplies most of Moldova's electricity and gives the separatists immense leverage. As a result, the two sides are locked in a wearing cycle of permanent negotiation and mutual dependency.

Gagauzia, where most people speak Russian as well as the Turkish-linked Gagauz language and a statue of Vladimir Lenin stands guard before the parliament, poses its own challenges to the government's attempts to oppose Russia's influence.

Moldovans' confidence in Putin fell from 60% in January 2020 to 35% when the war started, according to polling last month by think-tank Watchdog.

In Gagauzia, the equivalent latter figure is 90%.

"Our roots are interwoven," said Valentina Koroleak, a journalist at Gagauzia's public television, when asked why people there saw Russia's invasion so differently from other parts of Moldova.

"We were born in the Soviet Union, we grew up on those classics, those songs, the music."

(Editing by Mike Collett-White and Pravin Char)

PEDOPHILE PRIESTS ARE STRAIGHT
Catholic nonprofit in Colorado spent millions for data from hookup apps to identify gay priests: report


Muri Assunção, New York Daily News
Thu, March 9, 2023 at 12:20 PM MST·2 min read

A Denver-based Catholic nonprofit spent millions of dollars to purchase tracking data from gay dating and hookup apps to identify gay priests. They then shared that information with bishops across the country, a new investigation has found.

Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal — a group whose goal is to “empower the church to carry out its mission” by providing church leaders with “evidence-based resources” so they can better train priests after identifying their weaknesses — obtained tracking data from popular dating and hookup apps from 2018 through 2021, according to an investigative report published Thursday by The Washington Post.

The data allegedly purchased by the group involved users of Grindr, Scruff, Growlr and Jack’d — apps that are primarily used by gay and bisexual men — as well as OkCupid, according to the report.

Two people familiar with the matter told the paper they disapprove of the secretive effort, which they view as spying, adding that the project would ultimately damage the image of the Catholic Church.

The group claims to have purchased location and usage data from the apps, then cross-referenced that information with known addresses of priests, according to the report.

Grindr, the world’s largest LGBTQ social network, says such claims “remain completely invalidated.”

The company says it takes the privacy and safety of its roughly 12 million monthly active users “very seriously” and never shares users’ personal information, such as geolocation, profile or even “industry-standard data like age or gender.”

“We are infuriated by the actions of these anti-LGBTQ vigilantes,” Grindr spokesperson Patrick Lenihan told the Daily News on Thursday. “Grindr has and will continue to push the industry to keep bad actors out of the ad tech ecosystem, particularly on behalf of the LGBTQ community. All that group is doing is hurting people.”

Prior to the publishing of the report, The Washington Post reached out to the Catholic organization for comment. A spokesperson said the group’s president, Jayd Henricks, would agree to do an interview at a later time — but he later failed to return any phone calls or messages from the reporters.

On Wednesday, Henricks said in a first-person piece published online that the organization has “used data to identify models of parish and diocesan life that flourish, as well as those that were less successful.”

The essay, titled “Working for Church Renewal,” appeared on the site First Things, a journal of religion and public life published by a nonprofit named The Institute on Religion and Public Life.

Anti-LGBTQ+ Politician Caught Commenting on Gay Man's Sexy Instagram Pics

Mey Rude
Thu, March 9, 2023 


Tennessee lieutenant governor Randy McNally is in hot water after reporters found that he frequently likes suggestive and sexual pics from a gay Instagram user named @franklynsuperstar.

The photos include pictures that show close-ups of the man’s butt in underwear, workout pics, and sexy outfits, including women’s clothes. McNally’s comments often include heart and fire emojis and supportive compliments.

One specific post, which shows a closeup of Franklyn’s butt with his underwear pulled tight, McNally commented on saying, “Finn, you can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine!”

While McNally calls the man Finn, WKRN News 2 in Tennessee interviewed him and identified him as Franklyn. He says that McNally followed him in 2020 and has sent compliments by direct message, but the two have never met in person.

“To me, I’m not a stranger to compliments, so I don’t really read into them because I just think that’s wrong to assume somebody’s hitting on you just because they’re nice to you,” the man told News 2. “He did not say he wanted to date me or have sex or anything like that.”

“I just hope that he knows I love him and LGBTQ+ loves him and would love him even more if he would open his heart and treat everyone else the way he wants to be treated because the way I want to be treated is to be accepted and be able to be myself and not be taken to police,” Franklyn continued.

McNally’s team hasn’t denied that he commented on the posts, and instead have tried to spin the story into just being about an older man who wants to enthusiastically use social media but doesn't quite get it.

“Trying to imply something sinister or inappropriate about a great-grandfather’s use of social media says more about the mind of the left-wing operative making the implication than it does about Randy McNally,” a statement from the lieutenant governor’s office reads. “As anyone in Tennessee politics knows, Lt. Governor McNally is a prolific social media commenter.”

“He takes great pains to view every post he can and frequently posts encouraging things to many of his followers,” the statement continues. “Does he always use the proper emoji at the proper time? Maybe not. But he enjoys interacting with constituents and Tennesseans of all religions, backgrounds, and orientations on social media. He has no intention of stopping.”

None

— (@)

Today, McNally himself commented on the pictures and his replies.

When a reporter asked him to comment on the issue and how long he’s known Franklyn, McNally responded, “oh, a while now.”

“I’m not anti-gay,” he continued. “We pass bills that kind of limit certain things and I think there are safeguards in those bills…”

When the reporters brought the subject back to Franklyn, McNally said that he just likes to comment on social media.

“I try to encourage people on my posts, and I try to support people, and just because he’s gay, I also have friends who are gay, and I have relatives who are gay, and I don’t feel any animosity towards gay people, I think that’s pretty clear.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Vows to Keep Thirsting Over Queer Instagram Nudes

Miles Klee
Thu, March 9, 2023 

tn-lt-gov-randy-mcnally.jpg XGR Special Session - Credit: Mark Humphrey/AP

A person is always wise to remember that Instagram likes and comments are public. But a 79-year-old man who likes what he sees is not always disposed to restrain himself, and it looks as though Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally is one such fellow.

As the Tennessee Holler first reported on Wednesday, McNally has for some time been a devoted fan of Franklyn McClur, a 20-year-old gay man who grew up in Knoxville and aspires to move to Los Angeles to make it in show business. McClur’s Instagram photos and captions are often suggestive in nature; he shows off his body, sometimes posing fully nude, and wears makeup. All pretty standard as far as the app goes. What’s unusual is that McNally has for months used his own verified account to unabashedly compliment McClur’s thirst traps — this while his state moves to criminalize drag shows and gender-affirming care for transgender children as part of the nationwide Republican push for laws targeting the LGBTQ community.

“Finn, you can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine!” McNally wrote, using McClur’s nickname, on a January photo in which the younger man shows off his butt in tight-fitting underwear. In a follow-up comment, he appended heart and flame emojis. Elsewhere, McNally has complimented McClur’s skimpy outfits and told him, “You need to be on dancing with the stars.” On a nude photo which McClur captioned “I Love being naked.. the Garden of Eden, is My Vibe. I Understand God,” McNally replied, “Great picture, Finn! Best wishes for continued health and happiness.”



In some ways, it’s refreshing to see an elderly GOP politician and Catholic in a longstanding heterosexual marriage openly support a queer constituent. What’s more eyebrow-raising about the relationship is that McNally began messaging McClur in 2020, when the aspiring performer was just 17 years old. But McClur, for his part, is appreciative of the comments and doesn’t see them as deliberately flirtatious. He also confirmed that McNally has complimented him in private messages — though the two have never met. “I just thought he was older and out of touch,” he told the Tennessee Holler. “I’ve always taken it as a compliment. I don’t dislike him or think he’s a bad person, he’s one of the only people who has consistently uplifted me and made me feel good.”

That said, McClur does not support the anti-LGBTQ bills coming out of the state’s legislature and signed into law by Governor Bill Lee. As Lieutenant Governor, McNally has at times raised concerns about such measures — noting that backlash could hurt Tennessee businesses, for example. And of a proposal that would have prevented trans student athletes from competing among their own gender, he cautioned: “Whatever we do will probably be reviewed by the federal government and they can cut funding to the state. It’s an issue I think that we need to move very carefully.”

If McNally has not gone so far as to condemn these bills as hateful and discriminatory, he is nonetheless strongly advocating for his right to admire the body of a man nearly six decades his junior. In a statement to press, his communications director scoffed at attempts to “imply something sinister or inappropriate about a great-grandfather’s use of social media.”

“As anyone in Tennessee politics knows, Lt. Governor McNally is a prolific social media commenter,” the statement continued. “He takes great pains to view every post he can and frequently posts encouraging things to many of his followers. Does he always use the proper emoji at the proper time? Maybe not. But he enjoys interacting with constituents and Tennesseans of all religions, backgrounds and orientations on social media. He has no intention of stopping.”

While the stirring defense of being horny on main is appreciated, this might have been a missed opportunity for McNally to more forcefully criticize the wave of legislation poised to harm people like McClur and the trans individuals he also follows and engages with. Speaking of McNally’s affection toward him, McClur told the Daily Beast, “I hope he can extend that kindness by trying to make sure no bills are passed to hurt anyone like me.”

Really, it’s the least he can do after all the joy McClur has brought him.

GOP Lt. Gov Explains Liking Gay Nudes: ‘I Try to Encourage People’

Ryan Bort
Fri, March 10, 2023 

Randy McNally - Credit: Mark Humphrey/AP Images

Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally has a strange habit for a powerful Republican in a state where the party has not been kind to the LGBTQ community. He simply cannot stop liking and commenting on a 20-year-old gay male model’s Instagram posts.

The Tennessee Holler reported on Wednesday that McNally has repeatedly interacted with the Instagram page of Franklyn McClur, who grew up in Knoxville and routinely posts provocative images of himself, often nude. “Finn, you can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine!” McNally commented on a close-up shot of McClur’s backside in form-fitting underwear

McNally is not hiding from the story. His office released a statement emphasizing that the lieutenant governor loves social media and takes “great pains to view every post he can” and that “he has no intention of stopping.” McNally even sat down for an interview with Nashville’s NewsChannel5 on Thursday.

“I try to encourage people with posts and try to, you know, help them if I can,” McNally explained. “I was basically trying to encourage him.”

McNally was then asked about McClur characterizing himself as “not a WHORE” but “a HOE” because “one is a SLUT and the other is a PROSTITUTE” and that he’s “the one who gets free weed for giving [a reference to a sexual act].”

“A lot of times on people’s posts you see the name and you see what they’ve written and you press the button that says like,” McNally explained.

“So you didn’t read that post?”

“I don’t recall reading the part about the weed, I know that.”

“But what about the prostitute?”

“I might have read that.”


McNally acknowledged that it was “probably not” appropriate to like that particular post.


The lieutenant governor’s infatuation with McClur isn’t new. He started messaging him back in 2020, when McClur was only 17. McNally insisted in the interview on Thursday that he’s never met McClur in person, although he has met some LGBTQ people who have helped his change his mind about the community. “Initially I was not very kind to that community,” he said. “As I learned some things and met some people in that community I realized they’re still individuals and still have value.”

McClur doesn’t seem too concerned about the uproar around his social media behavior and seems pretty resigned to whatever the state’s Senate — which has the power to remove the lieutenant governor from office — wants to do about the situation. He did apologize, though. “I’m really, really sorry if I’ve embarrassed my family, embarrassed my friends, embarrassed any of the members of the legislature with the posts,” he said. “It was not my intent to, and not my intent to hurt them.”

Analysis-With another ex-prime minister charged, Malaysia risks further turmoil


Former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin at Kuala Lumpur Court Complex

Fri, March 10, 2023 
By Rozanna Latiff and A. Ananthalakshmi

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia could face further political polarisation and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim risks a backlash as his administration prosecutes his opponent and predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin just three months after a divisive election, analysts say.

Muhyiddin, who was prime minister for 17 months between 2020 and 2021, was charged on Friday with abuse of power and money laundering over projects launched under his premiership. He has pleaded not guilty and said the charges were politically motivated.

Anwar has dismissed that and said the matter was entirely up to the law enforcement agencies.

But the case could make the Anwar government even more unpopular among the country's conservative, ethnic-Malay majority for targeting the opposition even as it has senior leaders in its fold facing criminal graft charges, observers told Reuters.

That in turn could bring more political uncertainty in a country that has seen five prime ministers in six years. Anwar's alliance is expected to face a formidable challenge from Muhyiddin's coalition at regional elections in six states, which are due by June.

"It's a big test for Anwar, who has people in his government who are facing corruption cases," Bridget Welsh, political analyst at the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute, told Reuters.

"His administration will face a broad crisis of credibility unless there is an effort to undertake more meaningful reforms... This narrative of persecution feeds into the polarized dynamic of Malaysian politics," she said.

Muhyiddin is the second prime minister in Malaysia's history to be charged for corruption soon after losing an election, and his case has thrown a spotlight on the various fissures in the country's politics.

In a multi-ethnic, multi-faith country Muslim ethnic Malays form a majority, while the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities are mostly Hindu, Buddhist or Christian.

Anwar runs a progressive, multi-ethnic bloc but has faced criticism for joining hands with the corruption-tainted United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party to form a government after he failed to win a majority in last year's election.

Anwar appointed UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as his deputy despite multiple criminal graft charges.

Muhyiddin leads a conservative ethnic-Malay, Muslim alliance that has portrayed itself to be clean of corruption, and that made huge inroads in the Malay heartlands in the election. Anwar does not enjoy popularity in that base, surveys have shown.

In another possible political fall-out, the charges against Muhyiddin could potentially weaken his party and strengthen the role of the Islamist party PAS within the opposition bloc, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapore's Institute of International Affairs.

"A PAS-dominated Perikatan will be heavy on religious sentiment. That can echo with an increasing conservative cohort in Malaysian electorate," Oh said, referring to the opposition bloc.

REVENGE POLITICS?

Anwar maintains that the case against Muhyiddin was not politically motivated. For stability, it is important for his government to signal that it was not targeting the opposition, said political analyst Wong Chin Huat.

"As long as Anwar can hold and expand the middle ground by demonstrating state impartiality, instead of revenge politics, his government would be safe and the international community needs not worry about political instability," Wong said.

Unlike recent Malaysian premiers, Anwar has not made any changes to the leadership of the country's law enforcement agencies upon winning power.

In fact, Muhyiddin appointed the top civil servants who were instrumental in the investigations into his alleged graft: the chief of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the country's attorney general.

The MACC on Friday denied interference in its investigation process.

Muhyiddin is not the first Malaysian leader to blame political motivations for the accusations against him.

Anwar himself served jail time for corruption and sodomy before becoming prime minister, charges he insists were designed to keep him from power. He was pardoned in 2018.

Malaysian politics has been in a flux since Najib Razak lost elections in 2018, bringing to an end an uninterrupted rule by the UMNO party that had governed for more than 60 years since independence.

Najib, who has also claimed political persecution, is now serving a jail term for graft related to the multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Opinion | I Helped Write the Jan. 6 Committee Report. Here’s What Tucker Carlson Left Out.


Brynn Anderson/AP Photo

Tom Joscelyn
Fri, March 10, 2023

Tucker Carlson tried to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021, and utterly failed.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave the Fox News host and his producers exclusive media access to more than 40,000 hours of security footage recorded by the U.S. Capitol Police. Carlson promised viewers that his reveal of this massive tranche of video would dramatically alter our collective understanding of the events. It did not.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that his supposed investigation was a dud — even if you hadn’t spent countless hours poring over details of the Capitol riot like I did.

I served as a senior professional staff member on the January 6th Select Committee and helped write its final report. I got a close look at some of the video evidence that Carlson obtained — and his manipulation of the audience was immediately obvious to me.

 Here’s why.

First, the premise of his “investigation,” that the USCP footage was being withheld to cover up the full story, was always false. Working with the Select Committee’s members, the investigative team and staffers reviewed the USCP’s recordings, which provided new angles at some key locations. But it did not change our basic understanding of what transpired. How could it? The riot is one of the most widely covered events in history. There is no dearth of footage from that day.

In addition to the USCP’s surveillance video, the Select Committee reviewed footage recorded by cameras worn by Metropolitan Police Department officers, the work of documentary filmmakers and countless open-source videos, including clips recorded by the rioters themselves. Many Americans have already seen some of this footage with their own eyes. They know the mob was not at the Capitol primarily for sightseeing, as Carlson claimed.

On Monday night, the Fox News host showed just several minutes of cherry-picked footage. Cameras inside the Capitol and on its grounds recorded many more scenes that he did not play for viewers. Some of this footage has long been available online. For example, you can watch rioters ramming their way through USCP officers at the Senate Wing door, members of the mob smashing the ornate East Rotunda doors before other rioters open them from the inside, and the melee at the west plaza tunnel (at the two-hour, 14-minute mark). You can also view a timeline of events used by federal prosecutors, who relied on the USCP’s camera footage. Carlson’s team had access to this footage, and more, but chose not to show any of it to Fox News viewers Monday night. It’s easy to see why. The full USCP cache tells a very different story from the one Carlson wants people to see.

There is another fundamental problem with Carlson’s presentation that may not be so easy for the casual viewer to spot. He has repeatedly whitewashed the key role played by far-right extremists, namely, the Proud Boys. Their story, including how then-President Donald Trump inspired them, is told in Chapters 6 and 8 of the January 6th Select Committee’s final report. The Proud Boys and other extremists led the mob, but Carlson refuses to let his viewers know it.

Let us compare one of Carlson’s conspiracy theories to the well-established facts. For more than two years, Carlson has chased a bogeyman, arguing that provocateurs working for the federal government (or, alternatively, agitators on the left) somehow tricked Trump’s “patriots” into rioting. He still cannot identify any federal agents working for the so-called “deep state.” Carlson and others have focused on a lone individual who has not been charged, Ray Epps, insinuating that he was a secret FBI plant. This claim is baseless. They’ve produced no evidence connecting Epps, a Trump supporter, to the FBI or any other federal agency.

Meanwhile, Carlson has ignored nearly all of the evidence collected against the approximately 1,000 January 6th defendants who have been charged. That evidence reveals the real parties responsible for channeling the mob’s anger.

In fact, one of the most important January 6th trials is currently ongoing in a Washington, D.C., courtroom. Five members of the Proud Boys, including the group’s chair, Enrique Tarrio, have been charged with seditious conspiracy and other serious crimes. The Department of Justice claims the Proud Boys “conspired to prevent, hinder and delay the certification of the Electoral College vote, and to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States.” Moreover, on Jan. 6, 2021, the Proud Boys “directed, mobilized and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metal barricades, destruction of property, breaching of the Capitol building, and assaults on law enforcement.”

The DOJ’s allegations are consistent with the Select Committee’s findings, as well as the investigative work done by real reporters. Law enforcement officials have collected overwhelming evidence, including text messages and videos, showing how the Proud Boys conspired against America’s democracy. They discovered that Tarrio told his men to “storm the Capitol” in the days leading up to the joint session of Congress.

While the attack was underway, Tarrio also claimed responsibility, messaging his men: “Make no mistake…” and “We did this.” Then, on the night of Jan. 6, Tarrio posted a video on the conservative social media site Parler that he titled, “Premonition.” The video shows a masked man, dressed as a super villain, standing in front of the Capitol. The figure is presumably Tarrio himself and the clip, recorded prior to Jan. 6, implies that he had foreknowledge of that day’s events.

You can watch “Premonition” here. It’s the type of spooky scene, set to foreboding background music, that makes for good television. Carlson did not show it to his viewers. In fact, he did not mention the Proud Boys at all.

The Select Committee’s review of video footage from multiple sources, including the U.S. Capitol Police, showed that the Proud Boys were conspicuously present on the front lines and at key breach points throughout the attack. Prosecutors are currently relying on the same type of footage, as well as additional sources of video, to make their case to a jury.

For example, Proud Boy leaders Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean riled up the crowd at the Peace Circle Monument just outside of the U.S. Capitol. The Select Committee showed how the Proud Boys marched from the Washington Monument, around the Capitol, and then instigated the first perimeter breach at this key location. By attacking the police officers stationed between the monument and the Capitol, sweeping away security fences in the process, the Proud Boys and their associates opened a clear path onto the Capitol’s grounds. Thousands of Trump’s supporters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and through the Peace Circle after leaving the president’s rally at the White House Ellipse.

Dominic Pezzola, another Proud Boy, was responsible for the first breach of the U.S. Capitol building itself. Pezzola smashed in a Senate Wing window with a stolen riot shield. This allowed the mob to swarm into the Capitol through both the window and a nearby door. Pezzola bragged about his actions in a video he recorded of himself inside the Capitol. While smoking a victory cigar, Pezzola said: “I knew we could take this motherfucker over if we just tried hard enough. Proud of your motherfuckin’ boy.”

During his presentation Monday night, Carlson focused on Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. the QAnon Shaman, pretending that he is the central figure in the January 6th story. Carlson claimed that we still don’t know how he entered the building. That’s not true — even the footage shown by Carlson makes it clear that Chansley entered through the Senate Wing door next to the window Pezzola bashed in.

There is much more evidence against the Proud Boys. Some members of the group have already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and other charges, admitting that their comrades planned to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. And the Proud Boys were not the only far right extremists involved. Members of two anti-government groups, the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, attacked the Capitol as well. Some Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, while juries convicted the group’s leader and other members of the same crime. White nationalists were also among the extremists who stormed the Capitol.

The Fox News audience did not hear any of this. Nor did they hear how Trump summoned these extremists to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6 via his tweets and statements. This part of the story is explained at great length in the Select Committee’s final report.

Tucker Carlson wants people to believe that phantom government agents were responsible. No one who relies on facts and logic will be fooled.

EU strikes deal to curb energy use by 2030

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) - The European Union struck a deal on Friday to cut final energy consumption across the bloc by 11.7% by 2030, a goal lawmakers said would help fight climate change and curb Europe's use of Russian fossil fuels.

The deal was agreed after all-night talks between negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament.

Hitting the targets will require countries to renovate millions of draughty buildings to waste less energy. With most European buildings heated by fossil fuels, the policy is crucial to the EU's efforts to combat climate change.

"This will mean real change for the benefit of the climate and disadvantage of Putin," said Niels Fuglsang, Parliament's lead negotiator.

Negotiators agreed that energy consumed by end-users in the bloc such as households and factories in 2030 should be 11.7% lower than expected use by that date.

But the deal fell short of the 13% target the European Commission last year said the EU would need to help wean countries off Russian fossil fuels faster after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

"It improves the current energy efficiency directive, but not to the extent needed to meet the REPowerEU objectives," Arianna Vitali, Secretary General of the non-profit Coalition for Energy Savings, referring to the EU's targets to quit Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

The EU Parliament had wanted a higher goal of 14%, while some EU countries pushed for a lower 9% - the original EU proposal from 2021, which it changed following Russia's invasion.

The target will be legally binding. Countries will set their own non-binding national goals - but if they do not add up to the 11.7% goal, the European Commission will correct them.

From 2024 to 2030, countries will have to save an average of 1.49% of final energy consumption per year. Countries will have to speed up renovations of publicly-owned buildings, renovating at least 3% of such buildings' total floor area each year.

The deal will now go to the European Parliament and EU countries for a final vote, which is usually a formality that approves the law with no changes. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Kate Abnett; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Ukrainian journalists fight another kind of war - against graft

Thu, March 9, 2023 
By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV, March 9 (Reuters) - Ukrainian reporter Serhii Andrushko believes his country's struggle for freedom also includes another kind of war - against high-level corruption - which experts think could have more success now as Kyiv strives for European Union membership.

Last month, the Radio Liberty correspondent confronted candidates on camera vying to become Kyiv's next top anti-corruption official about their personal finances and political ties.

That might seem less urgent when soldiers are dying every day, but part of Ukraine's battle includes shedding any perceived similarities to Russia. "Particularly its attitude to corruption," Andrushko said.

According to Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine ranked slightly better than Russia but still well below the global average.

So reporters like Andrushko say they are working to keep their rulers honest, a job some experts and media insiders said could have more impact now that Kyiv is under pressure to prove it can clean up its act as it seeks membership in the European Union.

They said a major political shake-up seen earlier this year, when more than a dozen officials were dismissed amid a flurry of critical domestic press coverage, could be a taste of things to come if Ukraine's investigative journalists continue.

Their focus also shows civil society is embracing its role as a government watchdog even as the war grinds on.

"Media are becoming more influential because they're appealing to the more acute sense of justice among citizens," said researcher Petro Burkovskyy, of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think-tank.

They will need to choose stories wisely and back up their reporting, he added, since being sloppy or overly critical can invite public scepticism or even accusations of being unpatriotic.

Many journalists are also turning their attention to uncovering Russian war crimes and assets in Ukraine.

KEEPING WATCH

Before the war, critical reporting on illicit or scandalous behaviour had been a fixture in Ukraine, where a robust free press means reporters spotlight everything from opulent homes to luxurious trips abroad that are unaffordable on official salaries.

They lurk outside pricey properties, filming officials entering and exiting, or snap images of them driving flashy cars. Video investigations are often sleekly produced, set to dramatic music and narrated in an acerbic tone.

Now the stakes are higher, said investigative reporter Mykhailo Tkach, as many Ukrainians donate their own money to keep soldiers equipped as they fight Russia's invasion, and want to know it is spent properly.

The EU has also made eradicating graft a key condition for membership, which most here believe is a lifeline to a brighter future. Ukraine wants candidacy negotiations to begin this year.

Reporting by Tkach, a journalist for online outlet Ukrayinska Pravda, on a top official's Spanish vacation during the war played a role in the dismissals in January, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged to continue if more graft was uncovered.

A separate report by a peer alleging the defence ministry was overpaying to feed its troops helped crystallize the immediate dangers of corruption and led to a ministry shake-up.

A more recent Tkach investigation probed the purchase of a luxury apartment, among other assets, by a brother of one of Zelenskiy's advisers allegedly at a bargain-basement price.

PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP

Such reports play a key role in Ukraine's fledgling anti-corruption system, created after the 2014 Maidan revolution toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Oleksandr Novikov, head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), a state body that monitors officials' lifestyles, said the information media uncover can help build legal cases against officials suspected of graft.

"We consider Ukrainian journalism, especially investigative reporting, to be like another anti-corruption institution," he told Reuters during a recent interview in his Kyiv office.

Watchdogs believe cleaning up corruption will be a long game, while media advocate Oksana Romaniuk said journalists must vet their stories on graft extra carefully to help retain public confidence.

A recent survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) showed that trust in mass media grew from 32% to 57% over the past year. But that's far below the 96% and 84% who trust the military and Zelenskiy respectively.

Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, an NGO in Kyiv, said Ukrainian journalists' role as anti-corruption activists will become increasingly important as Kyiv maps out a more transparent future.

"Our plan is definitely to preserve democracy, because we see what happens when there isn't any." (Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Fauci says Redfield’s testimony of COVID call was ‘unequivocally incorrect’



Jared Gans
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Anthony Fauci, who led much of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said testimony from former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield that he was excluded from a conference call about the possible origins of the virus was “unequivocally incorrect.”

Fauci told Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto in an interview on Thursday that he was not involved in deciding who would be involved in a call he took with a group of evolutionary virologists to discuss the “possibility” that the virus was “engineered.”

“He is totally and unequivocally incorrect in what he’s saying that I excluded him,” he said. “I had nothing to do with who would be on that call.”

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made his comments in response to testimony that Redfield gave on Wednesday before a House select subcommittee investigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans serving on the committee focused much of their attention on the theory that the virus escaped from a research laboratory in Wuhan, China, causing the pandemic to start.

Redfield said he believes this theory “based on the biology of the virus itself” more so than the theory that the virus naturally spread from an animal to humans.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the subcommittee, asked Redfield about a meeting that Jeremy Farrar, the director of the British charity Wellcome Trust, organized of 11 top scientists from five time zones, including Fauci, to discuss the pandemic in February 2020.

She said Fauci responded to an invitation he received for it that he wanted to “keep this group really tight” and keep the discussion “in total confidence.”

Redfield testified that he had multiple conservations in January 2020 with Fauci, Farrar and Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, about scientists needing to explore both hypotheses.

Malliotakis asked Redfield why he was “excluded” from the call Farrar organized, and Redfield responded that he was told that they “wanted a single narrative” and he had a different point of view about the origins of the pandemic.

Fauci told Cavuto that he believes “it is unfortunate” that Redfield made “that absolutely incorrect statement” in a public setting. He said he did not add or remove anyone’s name from the list of who would be included in the call.

Fauci said half of the people who were present on the call believed the origin of the pandemic might have been a lab leak, making his rationale of why he thought he was excluded “invalid.”

“He’s a good guy — I’ve known him for years. I’m just really a little bit disturbed about why he said that, which was completely untrue,” he said, referring to Redfield.

The Hill

Trump’s CDC director says Fauci shut down debate on Covid’s origin


Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

Carmen Paun
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Trump administration CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee Wednesday that his former colleague, Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins froze him out of discussions on Covid-19’s origins.

The accusation came during a politically charged hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and stoked Republican claims that Fauci in early 2020 promoted the view that an infected animal spread the virus to humans to divert attention from research the U.S. sponsored at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative and then I obviously had a different point of view,” Redfield told representatives.

Redfield said Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and Collins left him out because Redfield suspected the coronavirus had leaked from the Chinese lab.

Fauci, who was not at the hearing, dismissed Redfield’s accusation as “completely untrue.”

“No one excluded anyone,” he told POLITICO after the hearing.

“And the idea of saying that he was not wanted there because he had a different opinion … there were several people on the call who had the opinion that it might have been an engineered virus,” said Fauci, who retired from his government post at the end of last year.

Collins, who is now a science adviser to President Joe Biden, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he shares Fauci’s view that the virus likely came from nature, but that a lab leak was possible.

Redfield thought the highly infectious nature of the virus distinguished it from other coronaviruses and made it unlikely to have evolved naturally, he told representatives.

Fauci and others said it most likely came from a natural spillover from animals, as was the case with other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, Redfield said.

The former CDC director said he later found out he was excluded from a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call with Fauci and Jeremy Farrar, a U.K. scientist who at the time led the Wellcome Trust, and other conversations that resulted in the publication of an article in Nature in March 2020 dismissing the possibility of the virus originating in a lab. Farrar is now the World Health Organization’s top scientist.

Fauci told POLITICO he was not involved in the drafting of the article.

But Republican representatives at the hearing accused Fauci of having orchestrated it to deflect attention from U.S. funding research at the Wuhan lab.

“I think Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They got caught supercharging viruses in an unsecured Chinese lab,” said James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Fauci has repeatedly denied that the NIH financed so-called gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. That research aims to make viruses either more lethal or more transmissible or both to find ways to combat them.

Some Democratic representatives at the hearing warned that accusing Fauci of ill motives would further erode trust in government health officials, threatening public health.

“I want the facts, but I hope and say to my colleagues on the other side: We cannot go down a dangerous path by pushing unfounded conspiracies about Dr. Fauci and other long-serving career public health officials,” said Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).