Another Norfolk Southern train derails, this time in Alabama

Kenneth Niemeyer
Sun, April 9, 2023 

Norfolk Southern Railway train passes through East Palestine

Gene J. Puskar/AP

Another Norfolk Southern train derailed, this time in Jasper, Alabama, police say.

The derailment follows a Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio in February, spilling toxic chemicals into the environment.

Norfolk Southern says that the train that derailed in Alabama was not carrying hazardous materials, police say.

Another day, another train derailment in the United States.

A Norfolk Southern train went off the tracks near Jasper, Alabama, on Sunday, trapping the train's crew in the engine room briefly after the engine car tipped over, the Jasper police said in a statement.

"There were no major injuries, but [Regional Paramedic Services] was called to the scene to evaluate the crew and transported two crew members as a precaution. "

The derailment comes two months after another Norfolk Southern train came off the tracks in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling hazardous chemicals and forcing the partial evacuation of the town for several weeks. Animals started dying at alarming rates near the town after officials conducted a "controlled release" of the chemicals on board.

Rail unions say cost-cutting measures have caused railroads to become unsafe in recent years and have called for strengthened safety measures, according to USA Today. The incident rate of train accidents in 2022 was 16.75, an increase from 15.42 in 2020, Federal Railroad Administration data shows.

The Jasper Police Department said that Norfolk Southern officials confirmed that there were no hazardous chemicals on board the train that derailed on Sunday. Norfolk Southern told Insider in a statement that 11 cars and the lead locomotive of the train derailed and rolled onto its side, spilling some diesel fuel and engine oil.

"There are no reports of a hazmat situation or danger to the public," the statement said. "Our two crew members were transported to the hospital and have since been released."

Multiple Norfolk Southern train cars derail near Pittsburgh

BY OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN - 04/09/23

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw gives an opening statement during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 to discuss rail saftey after last month’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.


Multiple Norfolk Southern train cars derailed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday, amid the recent turmoil surrounding the U.S.-based railway company, which was at the center of a toxic train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line in February.

CBS News reported that five empty cars derailed, closing a stretch of West Carson Street, which runs alongside the Ohio River. Authorities said that no injuries or safety hazards have been reported in the incident.

In a statement to The Hill, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson said its crews and contractors have already begun the cleanup process.

“This morning, approximately five empty steel cars derailed near Pittsburgh. There is no hazardous material involved, and the cars are upright. There were no injuries reported. Norfolk Southern crews and contractors are on-site and have begun clearing the cars,” Norfolk Southern said in its statement.

“To access the site, we may have to stage some equipment on nearby roads — we appreciate the community’s patience while this work happens.”

This is at least the fourth derailment incident involving Norfolk Southern’s trains since the start of 2023.

Last month, a company train derailed in northeast Alabama, sending 30 empty train cars off the tracks en route from Atlanta to Mississippi.

The Alabama derailment happened on the same day Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the disastrous derailment of a company train in East Palestine, Ohio.

In that crash, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed near the Pennsylvania state line, causing a massive fire and prompting authorities to evacuate about half of the 4,800 residents in the surrounding area.

Some of the rail cars were carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, combustible liquids, butyl acrylate, benzene residue, and other nonhazardous materials, spurring fears among East Palestine residents of long-term contamination of air and water.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened a special investigation into the company, including at least five different “significant accidents” involving the company since 2021.

U.S. EPA to propose new vehicle pollution cuts, sees big EV jump

They would effect the 2027-2032 model years

REUTERS

Apr 8th 2023 at 10:00AM

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set as early as next week to propose new rules to spur sweeping cuts in vehicle emissions pollution that will push automakers towards a big increase in electric vehicle sales, sources told Reuters.

The proposed rules are expected to cover the 2027 through 2032 model years. Environmental groups and some automakers think the proposal will result in at least 50% of the U.S. vehicle fleet by 2030 being electric or plug-in hybrids - in line with a goal President Joe Biden outlined in 2021. The administration has not backed calls by California and others ban the sale of new gasoline-only light-duty vehicles by 2035.

In December 2021, the EPA finalized new light-duty tailpipe emissions requirements through the 2026 model year that reversed then-President Donald Trump's rollback of car pollution cuts.

One big question is whether the new EPA rules will be as aggressive as California's effort to ramp up zero-emission vehicles and phase out new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

California Air Resources Board Executive Officer Steven Cliff told Reuters in December the federal government should "look at stringency that’s equivalent to our rules ... We’re 68% zero emissions in 2030 so modeling that and looking at that as an option for 2030 is absolutely critical."

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing nearly all automakers including Ford Motor, Volkswagen and Toyota Motor, said Thursday the industry backs the shift to EVs. "The question isn't whether it can be done, it's how fast can it be done."

Automakers have raised concerns the administration will require them to spend significant sums to improve the efficiency of internal combustion vehicles that will be phased out in the next decade. "Every dollar invested in internal combustion technology is a dollar not spent on zero carbon technology," The alliance said.

Environmentalists want EPA to mandate significant pollution cuts for gas-powered vehicles because they will remain on the road for decades.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also plans in the coming weeks to propose new fuel economy standards.

California still needs approval from the Biden administration for its plan to phase out gasoline-only models and it has not yet submitted a formal request.

Tesla last year called on California to mandate an end to gasoline-vehicles by 2030. General Motors has said it plans to end sales of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

SOCIALISM FOR ME NOT THEE
Days after rejecting a bill to expand free school lunch for the state's neediest students, North Dakota senators voted to increase their own meal reimbursements

Taylor Ardrey
Sat, April 8, 2023 

Tetra Images/Getty Images

North Dakota senators voted to pass a bill that would give state employees meal reimbursements.

The vote came days after they declined to pass legislation to expand free school lunches.

"How can we vote for ourselves when we can't vote for children?" one state senator said.

The North Dakota Senate greenlit a bill on Thursday that will increase the amount of money they can expense for their meals when traveling within the state.

The vote came just days after the same group of lawmakers voted against legislation that would have expanded a free school lunch program for some of the state's neediest students, according to Inforum, a local news outlet.

That bill would have devoted $6 million from the state budget for the next two years to families whose income falls beneath double the federal poverty level, expanding an already existing federally-funded free lunch program.

A total of 13 Republicans voted both for their own increased meal reimbursements and against more free lunches for kids. For some lawmakers, the two votes pointed to a larger problem.

"I think it shows (the Senate's) priorities are a little out of whack when they have no problem increasing the meal reimbursement rate for ourselves but not for those families that may be struggling to make ends meet, "Assistant House Minority Leader Zac Ista, a Democrat, told Inforum.

Some senators argued the increased meal reimbursements — which jumped from $35 a day to $45 a day — were necessary due to inflation and didn't see any problem with voting for the meal reimbursements and against expanded free lunch for students.

North Dakota Senate Assistant Majority Leader Jerry Klein, one of the 13 senators who voted in favor of reimbursements and against school lunches, told Inforum that he didn't think there was any "correlation whatsoever" between the two bills.

Senate Minority Leader Kathy Hogan, on the other side, called the vote "self-serving."

"How can we vote for ourselves when we can't vote for children?" she told the Inforum.

This Montana man spends his days shooting at birds that land on a toxic lake to save them from burning inside out

Sarah Al-Arshani,Daniel T. Allen
Sat, April 8, 2023 

Mark MarianoDaniel T. Allen/Insider

The Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana is so acidic it has the potential to fry birds inside out in a matter of hours.

Locals, such as Mark Mariano, use a variety of methods to scare them away.

The lake became toxic after groundwater began to seep in and created sulfuric acid.

The Berkeley pit started off as an open pit mine about 65 years ago before the water pumps were shut off in 1982.

The Berkeley Pit is one of the largest superfund sites in the US.William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images

Shutting off the pumps meant that groundwater began to seep in and created sulfuric acid that leached metals out of the rock.

The lake has become so acidic that if a bird lands there for more than a few hours it could be cooked from the inside out, Insider reported. So, some locals have gotten creative in helping protect the migrant birds that fly through there.

The lake — located in Butte, Montana— is 7,000 feet long, 5,600 feet wide, and 1,780 feet deep.

The depth of The Berkeley Pit is taller than the statue of Liberty and Empire State Building, according to the EPA.Berkeley Pit

The Berkeley Pit is considered one of the largest superfund sites in the US.

It is a toxic lake a little over a mile long, and 1,780 feet deep, according to the EPA, and filled with heavy metals and toxic water from old underground copper mine shafts in Butte, Montana

To protect the birds, Mark Mariano uses an expensive arsenal of high-tech tools to keep the birds off the toxic lake.

A sharpshooter posted near the site.Daniel T. Allen/Insider

Mariano told Insider that he gave himself the title of "Waterfowl Protection Specialist."

"We invented that title, but it fits," he told Insider.

He uses aerial drones, a drone boar, and a handheld laser to help keep the birds off the water. Each tool works best for a different species of bird.

One of his favorite tools is a $5,000 Swarovski scope, which can spot the birds before they even get wet.

"If we can get, keep 'em from landing. That's always the best," Mariano explained.

During the peak season, someone like Mariano will go up to the area at least once an hour to ensure birds are safe.

Several species of birds including Snow geese, Avocets, and Grebes, migrate through Butte during the spring and fall.

Birds over The Berkeley Pit.Daniel T. Allen/Insider

"I mean, I dream, sleep, eat and poop, ducks" Mariano told Insider.

In 2016, an estimated 60,000 Snow Geese landed on the pit with about 3,000 of them dying, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Insider reported that scientists discovered that around 50 species of birds make their way through Butte every year.

Before resorting to shooting, people will use unnatural sounds to repel the birds from the area.

Wailers, which Mariano says annoys the birds.Daniel T. Allen/Insider

Mariano uses four wailers, which play a random series of alarms that can annoy the birds.

"You can hear these things on a, you know, nice warm summer night all across Butte," Mariano said.

Another method to save the birds is propane cannons.

Mariano also uses propane cannons, which have a timer.Daniel T. Allen/Insider

The cannons are set up on a timer and go off all day.

"They mimic gunfire, which a lot of the birds are scared of for obvious reasons," Mariano said.

The last resort is fireworks.

Mariano and his co-worker unload fireworks.Daniel T. Allen/Insider

Mariano said they've only had to resort to the fireworks twice, but overall he's proud of the work he does to keep these birds safe.

"I wake up without an alarm every morning and I'm happy to go literally rescue birds. And most days you walk home with your head held high, that you saw those birds get up and take off towards Helena to the North or to the South in the fall," Mariano told Insider.

CRT

Inside the Ku Klux Klan’s Plan to Conquer America

Brooke Leigh Howard
Sat, April 8, 2023 

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Library of Congress

My high-school history teacher was infamous for repeating information that she wanted her classes to remember. Anything worth knowing was generally said at least three times, which was her indication that we needed to take notes.

“Reconstruction: 1865 to 1877,” Ms. Thomas would chant.

It was the beginning of my tenth-grade year and the first time I had ever even heard about the political timeline just after the Civil War. During Reconstruction, the federal government put laws in place in attempts to help African Americans adjust after enslavement. Black people were running for political office, getting advanced degrees, and broadening their professional and social endeavors en masse.

The Klan Was the Original ‘Election Police’

However, that sense of Black liberation scared white supremacists, who formed vigilante groups to try and stifle Black people back into systemic boxes of subordination.

One of those organizations, the Ku Klux Klan was born in Tennessee. Though the homegrown terrorists did manage to slaughter thousands of Black Americans during their early existence, the Klan was unable to grow and prosper due to Reconstruction-era laws and the occasional righteous political leaders who enforced them. But the eventual relaxation of those laws allowed a resurrection of the Klan in the early 20th century, and the organization’s spidery legs of hate were spread throughout multiple avenues of politics, religious communities, and social movements.

Timothy Egan’s A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them (Viking) picks up on the second—and more notorious and harrowing—coming of the Ku Klux Klan when white sheets became the costume norm and burning crosses became regular scare tactics. Released April 4, the work of nonfiction reads like a thriller novel, as if it’s laying the groundwork for a movie script rather than providing the textbook template of historical accounts.

The book follows the true story of Grand Dragon D.C. “Steve” Stephenson and his rise as a white supremacist leader. The heart of the Klan no longer resided below the Mason-Dixon Line. Instead, it swept in massive waves across the Midwest, with Indiana as the ultimate zone of racist-religious-anti-immigrant terror.

Stephenson’s responsibility, Egan quoted a 1924 article from the Indianapolis Star, was “to go forth and spread ‘the principles of pure Patriotism Honor, Klanishness and White Supremacy.’”

The Invisible Empire, as the Klan is commonly known, was revived after a Baptist minister in 1905 North Carolina had a tantrum over the portrayal of the South in a staged version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The minister wrote his own book, The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, to counter the anti-slavery sentiments of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book was adapted into the film The Birth of a Nation (1915) by director D.W. Griffith, who happened to be homies with the creators of the early Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. (The same organization that hosts the Oscars and has been rattled with racist allegations for its lack of diversity.)

The Birth of a Nation set the technical and artistic standards for the up-and-coming movie industry and became propaganda for Klan recruitment as it hailed Black people as sexual predators, political deviants, idiots, and wastes of space when not in positions of servitude. (Ms. Thomas used to say that it was one of the hardest films she ever watched, advised her students never to do so, and said she had to split the three-hour silent film into separate segments to be able to emotionally digest the hateful content.)

Stephenson worked as an idolized recruiter of the Klan, treating the organization like a pyramid scheme with the commission he would make off of each new member—man, woman, or child. (Yes, Ku Klux Kiddies were a thing.) The Klan prided itself on being a group of do-gooder all-Americans who wanted to keep the white race pure. Meanwhile, Stephenson, one of its leaders responsible for 40 percent of its membership and who had eyes on becoming president of the United States, was guilty of everything his prized Invisible Empire condemned: divorce, adultery, illegal drinking during Prohibition, physical abuse, and sexual assault.

Stephenson, simply put, was a menace. He abandoned his pregnant wife in Oklahoma to basically become a white supremacy con-artist of the Midwest. He moved throughout Ohio and Indiana, marrying, illegally marrying, and making broken promises to wed women he allegedly raped to keep them quiet about his crimes.

Nonetheless, with Stephenson’s level of power, he considered himself the law.

A Fever in the Heartland illustrates the fascist orchestration the Ku Klux Klan set in place to infiltrate the country.

“If the Klan is dead, then America is dead,” Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans said in 1925.

Membership in the Klan was a necessity for employment with certain companies. Pastors, judges, mayors, senators, governors were either members or turned blind eyes to its oppressive—and brutal—forces. Laws were passed that were practically kissed by the Klan, including an immigration act that prevented Anne Frank’s family from relocating to the U.S. before the European Jewish Holocaust. Presidents disregarded the Klan’s reign of terror. Nazis were inspired.

The ultimate demise of the Klan’s leaders weren’t outside forces or opponents of their so-called racial purity. Typically, it was a Klansman’s ego that prompted his downfall. In Stephenson’s case, it had been a replica of his predatory behavior finally catching up to him.

Madge Oberholtzer, a working woman who was educated at Butler College, managed to stop Stephenson in his tracks. Afraid that she was going to lose her state government job due to budget cuts, she socialized with the Grand Dragon in an effort to stop the inevitable from happening.

However, Stephenson misread their relationship—or frankly, he didn't care. The Klan leader kidnapped Oberholtzer, forced her to drink alcohol, raped the young woman, and mangled her body in a gruesome sexual act. Realizing the level of power Stephenson had and seeing no other means of escape, Oberholtzer opted to ingest a fatal amount of mercury chloride she managed to obtain. With that unintended matter of self-sacrifice, Oberholtzer got Stephenson on the bad side of the law, which eventually landed him in trial for her murder and his eventual imprisonment.

A Fever in the Heartland is white supremacy’s form of poetic justice. An organization birthed on patriotism and unity was spurred from hate, and it thrived on that bigotry to the point where its members were blind of their own shortcomings.

However, while reading, I couldn’t help but point to the political parallels from a century ago that seem to echo today. Laws are being introduced in multiple states to diminish the rights of transgender people. Florida’s lawmakers are fighting tooth and nail to prevent historical accuracy from being taught in schools. Books are barred that are deemed too controversial to an antic—and false—American dream.

Voter suppression is an ongoing issue during elections. Neo-Nazis marched with torches at the University of Virginia (my alma mater), trumpeting white power seemingly in homage to those turn-of-the-century lynch mobs and cross burnings. And we’re still enduring the aftermath of a former president who wanted to build a wall to keep out Latinos he deemed were “killers” and other immigrants from “shithole countries.”

Though the Ku Klux Klan may not officially be feared as a collective organization as it once was, remnants of its social, political, and psychological power still fester in the soil.

 The Daily Beast.

Cruise line companies sell massive multimillion dollar ships for scrap overseas. Here's a look inside ship-breaking yards.

Sarah Al-Arshani,Abby Narishkin,Steve Cameron,Victoria Barranco,Kuwilileni Hauwanga
Sun, April 9, 2023

Decommissioned cruise ships are being dismantled at Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey, October 2, 2020.REUTERS/Umit Bektas

This shipyard in western Turkey has seen an influx of cruise ships due to the pandemic.


After losing billions in 2020, cruise lines like Carnival decided to sell some older ships.


Thousands of workers spend as much as a year in dangerous conditions breaking down just one ship.

The cruise line industry lost billions of dollars by the end of 2020

Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

The workers at the Aliağa ship breaking yards in western Turkey usually demolished only a few dozen cargo ships a year. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the cruise-line industry, the demolition site was inundated with ships.

The industry lost billions of dollars by the end of 2020, with Carnival Cruise Line losing more than $4 billion in the second quarter of 2020.

The pandemic caused Carnival, Costa, and Pullmantur Cruise Lines to send ships to be broken down in Turkey

Kashif Khan Productions

Carnival Cruise Line sold six ships for scrap, which were taken to the Aliağa ship breaking yards. The job of breaking down these large ships is one of the most dangerous and the added load has only made it harder.

"The owners could not find customers so they sent their ships to Aliağa," Emre Aras, a project manager at Avsar Gemi Sokum told Insider.

The process starts with captains coordinating with harbormasters to beach the ships in Turkey.

"Then the bowl front of the vessel is grounded on the shore while the stern still floats," Aras said.

It takes thousands of workers to break down a single cruise ship.

Workers destroyed the vessel to recycle precious steel in the yard of the ship in Cilincing on September 3, 2017 in Cilincing, Jakarta, Indonesia.Edi Ismail/NurPhoto via Getty Images

While the boat is being inspected, the crew figures out how to dismantle the vessel. Around 2,500 shipbreakers work to remove valuable material from the ships, emptying them out deck by deck mostly by hand.

"I can easily say that cruise vessels are the hardest vessel type to dismantle because, you know, there are hundreds of rooms on board," Aras said.

Workers then move on to dismantling things like pools and gyms, as well as stripping walls, windows, floors, and handrails.

The job is one of the most dangerous in the world, exposing workers to a variety of risks.

A drone image shows decommissioned cruise ships being dismantled at Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey, October 2, 2020.REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Those involved in this process risk a lot to do it, Nicola Mulinaris, a communication and policy officer at NGO Shipbreaking Platform told Insider. Mulinaris explained that workers run the risk of falling from heights, inhaling toxic gases, getting hit by falling objects, and deal with fire hazards from instruments like blow torches.

Not to mention, that these shipbreakers work in extreme weather conditions during both the summer and winter months. Additionally, any mistakes could cause damage to the environment and ruin millions of dollars worth of parts that need to be maintained in a specific condition to be reused.

The Aliağa yards have been improved in recent years to promote better safety.

A worker carries pipes at a ship breaking yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

REUTERS/Andrew Biraj

Dozens of shipyard workers have died or gotten injured in recent years in Southeast Asia. However, while conditions at the yard in Turkey were just as bad in the late 1990s by the early 2000's reports on the unsafe conditions forced changes in policy. By 2018, Aliağa yards began to comply with the European Union Ship Recycling Regulation, which meant the shipyard received improvements to limit environmental hazards while dismantling ships.

"Practices have been improved, but there are still concerns related to...the long-term impact on the health of the workers due to exposure to toxic substances," Mulinaris told Insider, adding that while some workers may not know these risks, others take the jobs for the increased pay

Cruise ships take a long time to dismantle but can bring in huge profits

A drone image shows decommissioned cruise ships being dismantled at Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey, October 2, 2020.

REUTERS/Umit Bektas

These ships could take a whole year to dismantle, Aras told Insider, howere the materials removed from them typically sell fast, and the metals from the ship could bring in $4 million in profits when they're recycled for future construction.

"You can make good money because there are lots of things on board, for second hand sales," Aras said.

See more about the ship-breaking yards

Lebanon still proxy battleground, 50 years after Israel raid




A sea of mourners followed the funeral procession for the slain Palestinian leaders killed in Israeli rad in Beirut on April 12, 1973. Israeli commando force led by a man disguised as brunette, Ehud Barak, who later rose to become Israel's prime minister infiltrated a posh Beirut neighborhood shooting dead three top officials with the Palestine Liberation Organization in two separate adjacent buildings. (AP Photo, File)

BASSEM MROUE
Mon, April 10, 2023 

BEIRUT (AP) — It was a cold night 50 years ago when an Israeli commando team led by a man disguised as a woman infiltrated a posh Beirut neighborhood and shot and killed three top officials from the Palestine Liberation Organization in their apartments.

The anniversary is little noted, but the April 10, 1973 operation has a relevance that continues today.

The raid was one of the first times that Lebanon became the arena where Israel and its opponents would settle their accounts. Fifty years later, it remains so, as highlighted by last week's exchange of rocket fire and airstrikes across the border between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Lebanon.

The boldness of the assassinations — by an Israeli team slipping in and out of Beirut with little resistance — stunned the Lebanese. At the time, two years before civil war erupted, their country was mainly known as a tourist attraction where visitors came to party, visit archaeological sites, ski on snow-capped mountains or sunbathe on sandy beaches. It signaled a new era that has lasted to this day, one in which regional powers have repeatedly intervened in Lebanon.

The raid was led by Ehud Barak, who later became Israel’s top army commander and then, in 1999, prime minister. Its targets were Kamal Adwan, in charge of PLO operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; Mohammed Youssef Najjar, a member of the PLO’s executive committee; and Kamal Nasser, a PLO spokesman and a charismatic writer and poet.

On the night of April 9, 1973, Adwan’s wife Maha Jayousi was suffering from a toothache and went to bed in the room of their young children. Adwan usually worked late and had a planned meeting with some PLO officials that night, said Jayousi, describing that night to The Associated Press. She spoke from Jordan, where she has lived since the raid.

Around 1 a.m. she was woken up by a strong sound and the shattering of the window above her bed. Adwan rushed into the bedroom carrying a gun and told her to stay in the room. Seconds later, shots rang out and Adwan fell dead in the corridor between the bedrooms. Two armed men came into the bedroom and shined a torch on Jayousi and the children.

One of them said into his radio in Hebrew, “Mission accomplished. His wife and children are here, should we kill them too?” The reply came back, “If they don’t resist, don’t kill them,” recalled Jayousi, who had studied Hebrew at Cairo University.

When the Israelis left, she rushed the children into a bathroom to hide, then looked around her home. The main entrance was broken wide open and riddled with bullet holes, and there were bloodstains on the stairs. She didn’t know at first that the team had also killed Nasser, who lived one floor above them.

Jayousi went to her balcony and shouted to Najjar, who lived in the building across the alley — not realizing that Najjar and his wife had also been killed. Jayousi said that weeks before the raid, she had noticed unknown people coming to their building’s parking area and that people across the street were taking pictures of their building. She said Adwan was concerned and told her he would ask for protection to be boosted.

The raid, known as Operation Spring of Youth, killed the three PLO officials as well as several Lebanese policemen and guards who responded to the assault. Two Israeli commandos on a separate team died after being wounded in a gunfight as they attacked another target in Beirut.

The operation was part of a string of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian figures in retaliation for the killings of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics during a hostage-taking by the Palestinian group Black September. Adwan’s son, Rami, later said his father had nothing to do with the attack in Munich.

Years later, Barak described the operation, saying that he and two other commandos were dressed as women with wigs and makeup so the team would attract less attention than a group of men walking along a Beirut street at night.

The Israelis landed on Beirut’s coast in boats and were met by Mossad agents, posing as tourists, who drove them to the neighborhood of Verdun.

There, three squads slipped into the two buildings and blew open the apartment doors, while Barak and a back-up team stood outside. They killed a guard who approached them and opened fire at a Lebanese police vehicle that responded to the shootings, Barak said in a television interview years later.

Barak said after eight minutes, the three squads returned, drove back to the shore and headed out to sea on the boats. The team made off with documents that led to arrests of PLO operatives in the West Bank.

Days after the killings, over 100,000 people took part in the funeral of the three leaders, who were buried at the “Martyrs Cemetery” where scores of Palestinian officials and fighters were laid to rest over the years.

The raid stoked already enflamed divisions among Lebanese between supporters and opponents of the PLO and other Palestinian factions. The Palestinian groups had adopted Lebanon as their base in 1970, relocating there after being expelled from Jordan and three years after Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. From Lebanon, they were staging attacks inside Israel.

The ensuing political crisis led to the resignation of Lebanon's then-Prime Minister Saeb Salam’s government. Less than a month later, clashes erupted between the Lebanese army and Palestinian guerillas. Those divisions were one factor that pushed Lebanon into its 1975-1990 civil war — during which Israel invaded and occupied part of the country until withdrawing in 2000.

Since the end of the civil war, the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah stepped in as Israel’s main adversary in Lebanon. A 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah wreaked heavy destruction in Lebanon, especially in the south.

Palestinian factions also still have a presence. Israel blamed the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a volley of rockets into its territory last week — apparently a response to Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a major shrine built on a hilltop revered by Muslims and Jews.

After Israel’s retaliation with airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday, some of the same Lebanese politicians who were bitter enemies of Palestinian fighters in the past denounced Hamas.

Samir Geagea, whose Christian Lebanese Forces often battled Palestinian fighters in the civil war, demanded the government ensure peace at the border. He also urged against leaving “strategic decision-making to the Iran-led alliance,” a reference to Hezbollah and Hamas. Fouad Abu Nader, another former Lebanese Forces commander, called for the arrest of the Hamas leader.

The wars and conflicts of the past 50 years have overshadowed memories of the 1973 raid, but it still stands out as a stunning moment.

Lebanese writer Ziad Kaj lived nearby in Verdun and was 9 years old when the raid took place. He said he remembers the shock as shooting rang out and electricity was cut. Many of the people in his building took shelter in his family’s apartment on the ground floor.

“It was a horrible sleepless night that still echoes in my head,” Kaj said.

China-US battle for African influence shifts to green critical minerals

South China Morning Post
Sun, April 9, 2023

As the US and China wrestle for influence in Africa, their next big battle is taking shape - for control of the continent's vast supply of the essential minerals used in electronics and batteries for electric vehicles.

Tanzania is building a critical minerals processing facility with US backing, as Washington courts resource-rich African nations to help break its dependence on China for the essential supplies.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris said work was already under way on what would be the first facility of its kind in Africa. She was speaking at a meeting with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan as part of her week-long African tour that started in late March.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Harris said the plant, based at the Kabanga nickel project in northwestern Tanzania, would deliver battery-grade nickel to the United States and global markets by 2026. The Kabanga mine is said to hold 44 million tonnes of nickel, copper and cobalt.

"Importantly, raw minerals will soon be processed in Tanzania, by Tanzanians. It will help address the climate crisis, build resilient global supply chains, and create new industries and jobs," she said.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan meet the press in Dar es Salaam. Photo: AP alt=US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan meet the press in Dar es Salaam. 

The White House said the arrangement was struck through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), a US$600 billion package adopted by the Group of 7 nations last year at Washington's urging, in a bid to counter China's influence in developing countries.

According to the White House statement, the US helped to facilitate a strategic partnership between Kabanga mine owners Lifezone Metals and TechMet, a critical metals company part-owned by the US government through the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

Lifezone Metals, which develops the raw materials for EV batteries, acquired the Kabanga nickel project in 2021, after former president John Magufuli's administration revoked the licence held by its previous owners - Barrick Gold and Glencore - in 2018.

The Tanzanian mine agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed last year by the US with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia, to help them establish new supply chains for EV batteries.

Washington acknowledges its blunder in standing by while Chinese interests have dominated the mining and processing of critical minerals. The latest moves are intended to reduce US reliance on China for the resources.

China controls most of the market for processing and refining of cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese, graphite, rare earths and other critical minerals vital for the world's transition to green energy.

Demand is set to increase exponentially for the resources, which are used in solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicle batteries and even military weapons.

Critical minerals are essential for the world's transition to green energy, with demand set to increase exponentially as carmakers increase electric vehicle production.

Christian-Geraud Neema, non-resident senior associate with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Africa programme in Washington, said the agreement with the DRC and Zambia had heralded a change of approach by the US.

In a recent CSIS commentary, Neema said the pact - signed in December during the first US-Africa Leaders' Summit held in Washington since the Obama administration - "signals the Biden administration's willingness to act and reduce dependence on China as much as possible".

"The United States is making a step towards a rather concrete approach by addressing the economic and industrial needs of the DRC and Zambia, countries which had recently signed a bilateral agreement to build electric batteries for EVs," he said.

The DRC is by far the world's largest exporter of cobalt, accounting for about 70 per cent of global production. It is also rich in diamonds, gold, copper, tin, tantalum and lithium, as well as the largest copper producer in Africa.

Zambia is rich in copper and cobalt. Chinese companies have made massive investments in both countries, with China sourcing 60 per cent of its cobalt from the DRC.

While China's relationship with the DRC is arguably indispensable, President Felix Tshisekedi's government believes it may be getting short-changed by foreign mining firms and is investigating contracts signed during the previous administration.

The DRC formed a commission last year to determine and assess mineral resources, as well as proven and probable mining reserves, at the Tenke Fungurume Mining copper and cobalt project, majority-owned by CMOC Group Ltd, previously known as China Molybdenum Co Ltd.

The US could be the invisible hand behind the DRC mining contracts review, according to Neema's CSIS commentary. He said Washington had pushed Tshisekedi to revise the country's previous deals with China, citing the Sicomines contracts signed under former president Joseph Kabila.

"So far, the move has not been able to bear tangible results, much to Washington's dismay," Neema wrote.

Other Chinese companies operating in the DRC include Huayou Cobalt, Chengtun Mining Group, Wanbao Mining, and China Nonferrous Metal Mining.

China has also made inroads into Zimbabwe, which is estimated to have Africa's largest unexploited reserve of lithium - the key raw material in electric vehicle batteries - and last year imposed an export ban on the metal in its unprocessed form.

The move was part of Zimbabwe's efforts to have lithium processed locally, although analysts said the ban would only benefit companies already operating there, which are predominantly Chinese.

Three Chinese companies - Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group - have recently acquired lithium projects in Zimbabwe worth a combined US$679 million. Huayou Cobalt and Chengxin Lithium are already developing processing plants.

"The reality of it is, this just took competition out of the market, and made it such that no new companies or countries can come in and invest," said Will McDonough, co-founder and CEO of asset manager EMG Advisors.

"It made it such that any artisanal mining that has occurred now only has few buyers and will be limited in what they can sell those metals for, because there is no free market."

McDonough said the biggest geopolitical and global macro issue of the next 10 or 20 years would be the control of critical minerals or battery metals, with Africa a key battleground.

"Our world saw first hand that dependence on Russia for our oil and gas is not a safe or sound plan," he said.

"We cannot allow China to become the Opec of lithium, copper, cobalt and nickel, or else any future development of this green energy capacity will be completely dependent on their permission and price creation, which isn't good for free trade or innovation - but is sadly the reality we all face."

Chris Berry, president of ­commodities advisory firm House Mountain Partners in New York, said it would be years - perhaps a decade - before the US had a chance of achieving a battery mineral supply chain that did not "touch" China in any way.

"China controls too much of the battery supply chain currently, specifically mineral refining, to think that Western markets can be truly independent of Chinese influence," Berry said.

Legislation - like Washington's Inflation Reduction Act could help - but was not an overnight fix, he added.

With China already dominant in Africa, "the deals recently announced by Vice-President Harris and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken are more of a geopolitical chess move to remind adversaries that the US will remain active on the global stage with respect to the buildout of next generation supply chains", Berry said.

"Companies are likely to have more of an impact by building supply chains closer to home in North America to serve the large consumer market and also take advantage of the benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act."

David Shinn, a specialist in China-Africa relations at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, said that ultimately US companies would base their decisions on the bottom line.

While government agencies like the DFC could give incentives for US firms to engage in the mining and production of African critical minerals, private companies would do so only if they concluded it was likely to be profitable, he said.

Shinn said China's state-owned companies (SOEs) would take greater risks - especially when directed by the government or the ruling Communist Party - and even absorb losses on investments that affected key Chinese security interests.

"Chinese SOEs also have easier access to government financing than do American private companies," he said.

But US companies could offer higher environmental standards - an important consideration in the mining and production of these minerals - and might also be willing to transfer more skills to their African counterparts, Shinn said.

"Competing with China on this issue will be a major challenge for American private companies, but it can be done. The Biden administration has clearly made this a priority."


Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Bank takeover prevented Swiss economy collapse: minister

AFP
Sat, April 8, 2023 


Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said Switzerland's economy would probably have collapsed had Credit Suisse gone bankrupt, in an interview published Sunday.

Keller-Sutter told Le Temps newspaper that the government had acted in the country's best interests in swiftly arranging the takeover of Switzerland's second-biggest bank by its larger domestic rival UBS.

Amid fears of a global banking crisis last month, investor confidence in Credit Suisse collapsed on March 15, with the government then orchestrating a takeover during the weekend before the markets reopened on March 20.

Some 109 billion Swiss francs ($120 billion) have been put on the table between government guarantees and the liquidity made available by the Swiss central bank.

"Given the circumstances, we acted as best we could to minimise the burden for the state and the taxpayers," Keller-Sutter said.

"Without determined intervention by the authorities, the alternative would have been a bankruptcy of Credit Suisse on Monday morning, accompanied by a probable collapse of the Swiss economy."

Like UBS, Credit Suisse was among the 30 banks worldwide deemed of global importance to the international banking system and therefore too big to fail.

But it suffered a string of scandals in recent years, and after three US regional banks collapsed in March, it was left looking like the weakest link in the chain.

- Double-quick deal -

The takeover talks were hastily conducted at Keller-Sutter's finance ministry in Bern and the $3.25 billion deal was announced on the evening of March 19.

"The bank would have gone bankrupt on Monday, March 20. For what? Because over the years there has been a culture that seems to have created the wrong incentives. Because there have been many scandals," said Keller-Sutter.

As for whether any executives would be brought to justice, she said: "It's difficult and complex."

She said the government's priority was to complete the merger. UBS said Wednesday it should close the takeover within the coming months.

The finance minister said it was too soon to talk about the future structure of UBS, which will become a mega-bank with some $5 trillion in invested assets.

Keller-Sutter said the government would have to analyse what happened in full, and then adapt the regulations on banks considered too big to fail.

"But there are limits. Let's not forget that... confidence cannot be regulated."

rjm/cdw

French prosecutors name bank chairman a suspect in Lebanese central bank probe


Lebanese police stand outside the Justice Palace as 

Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh attends a court hearing


Sat, April 8, 2023 
By Layli Foroudi, David Gauthier-Villars and Timour Azhari

Paris (Reuters) - French prosecutors said they have put a Lebanese banker under formal investigation, the latest move in a cross-border probe looking into whether Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh, embezzled vast sums of public funds.

The Lebanese banker, Marwan Kheireddine, who is the chairman of Lebanon's AM Bank, is suspected of participation in a criminal association and aggravated money laundering, a spokesperson at the Paris office of the National Financial Prosecutors said on Friday.

Kheireddine, who was in France on March 24 when prosecutors notified him of the preliminary charges, was not kept in custody, the spokesperson said, but he was told not to leave the country and his passport was confiscated.

Kheireddine did not respond to phone calls and text messages. A lawyer who, Reuters was told represents him, said he could not confirm being Kheireddine's counsel.

Salameh, who has been at the helm of the central bank for three decades, is being investigated in Lebanon, in France and in at least four other European countries over accusations of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and laundering some of the proceeds abroad.

Salameh has denied the accusations, saying he is being made a scapegoat for Lebanon's financial crisis that erupted in 2019.

According to people familiar with the French and Lebanese probes, Kheireddine is suspected of having allowed Salameh to process irregular fund transfers through AM Bank.

A lawyer for Salameh, Pierre-Olivier Sur, declined to comment on the allegations Kheireddine colluded with the governor. The Lebanese bank did not respond to a message seeking comment.

In January, Kheireddine was questioned by visiting European prosecutors in Beirut, who asked him about accounts at AM Bank containing large sums of money belonging to Salameh, according to people familiar with the interrogation.

Bank statements seen by Reuters show how the Salameh accounts at AM Bank ballooned from $15 million in 1993 to more than $150 million by 2019.

Lebanese prosecutors suspect the accounts, from which regular cash withdrawals were made, were used to conceal money laundering activity, a Lebanese judicial source said on Saturday.

Through lawyers, Salameh has denied using his AM Bank accounts to launder money, saying interests he capitalized on deposits explain why his savings rose.

Kheireddine served as a Lebanese minister of state between 2011 and 2013 and ran unsuccessfully for parliament in 2022 on a list backed by the powerful Iran-backed political party and armed group Hezbollah.

French prosecutors, who have not formally named Salameh a suspect, have summoned him for a hearing in Paris on May 16, according to Salameh's lawyer, Sur.

Sur said late on Friday it was not clear whether his client would be able to come to the hearing because his travels are restricted as part of Lebanese investigations.

Sur told Reuters he may challenge the hearing itself on procedural grounds.

According to the lawyer, French prosecutors have summoned his client with a view of naming him a formal suspect. Yet, in March, they came to Beirut, and questioned him as a "simple witness," he said.

If French prosecutors suspected Salameh of wrongdoing, they could not hear him as a witness, Sur said. The fact they did creates an "insurmountable gap" the lawyer said.

(Reporting by Layli Foroudi in Paris, David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul and Timour Azhari in Beirut; Writing by David Gauthier-Villars; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

As India’s population soars above all, fewer women have jobs


2 / 17
Sheela Singh, 39, stands in a narrow lane outside her house in a shanty area in Mumbai, India, Sunday, March 19, 2023. When she resigned in 2020 because of pressure from family, her monthly salary was higher than her husband's, an autorickshaw driver whose earnings fluctuated every day — but no one ever suggested he quit. Living in Mumbai on a single salary however has proved too expensive and Singh is now preparing to move back to the village where she once migrated. India will soon eclipse China to become the world's most populous country, and its economy is among the fastest-growing. But the number of Indian women in the workforce, already among the 20 lowest in the world, has been shrinking for decades. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

KRUTIKA PATHI
Sun, April 9, 2023

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Sheela Singh cried the day she handed in her resignation.

For 16 years, she had been a social worker in Mumbai, India's frenetic financial capital, and she loved the work. But her family kept telling her she needed to stay at home to take care of her two children. She resisted the pressure for years, but when she found out her daughter was skipping school when she was at work, it felt like she didn't have a choice.

“Everyone used to tell me my kids were neglected … it made me feel really bad,” Singh, 39, said.

When she resigned in 2020, Singh was earning more money than her husband, an auto-rickshaw driver whose earnings fluctuated day to day. But nobody suggested he quit.


“His friends used to taunt him that he was living off my salary,” Singh said. “I thought that clearly there was no value in me working so what’s the use?”

India is on the cusp of surpassing China to become the world’s most populous country, and its economy is among the fastest-growing in the world. But the number of Indian women in the workforce, already among the 20 lowest in the world, has been shrinking for years.

It’s not only a problem for women like Singh, but a growing challenge for India’s own economic ambitions if its estimated 670 million women are left behind as its population expands. The hope is that India's fast-growing working-age population will propel its growth for years to come. Yet experts worry this could just as easily become a demographic liability if India fails to ensure its rising population, especially its women, are employed.

Without Singh’s income, her family can no longer afford to live in Mumbai, one of Asia’s most expensive cities, and she’s now preparing to move back to her village to save money. “But there are no jobs there,” she sighed.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an ongoing series exploring what it means for the 1.4 billion inhabitants of India to live in what will be the world’s most populated country. ___

The women’s employment rate peaked at 35% in 2004 and fell to around 25% in 2022, according to calculations based off official data, said Rosa Abraham, an economist at Azim Premji University. But official figures count as employed people who report as little as one hour of work outside the home in the previous week.

A national jobs crisis is one reason for the gap, experts say, but entrenched cultural beliefs that see women as the primary caregivers and stigmatize them working outside the home, as in Singh's case, is another.

The Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), which uses a more restrictive definition of employment, found that only 10% of working age Indian women in 2022 were either employed or looking for jobs. This means there are only 39 million women employed in the workforce compared to 361 million men.

Just a few decades ago, things seemed to be on a different track.

When Singh became a social worker in 2004, India was still riding high from historic reforms in the 1990s. New industries and new opportunities were born seemingly overnight, sparking millions to leave their villages and move to cities like Mumbai in search of better jobs.

It felt life-changing. “I didn’t have a college degree, so I never thought it would be possible for someone like me to get a job in an office,” she said.

Even then, leaving home to work was an uphill fight for many women. Sunita Sutar, who was in school in 2004, said that women in her village of Shirsawadi in Maharashtra state were usually married off at 18, beginning lives that revolved around their husbands’ homes. Neighbors mocked her parents for investing in her education, saying it wouldn’t matter after marriage.

Sutar bucked the trend. In 2013, she became the first person in her village of nearly 2,000 people to earn an engineering degree.

“I knew that if I studied, only then would I become something -- otherwise, I’d be like the rest, married off and stuck in the village,” Sutar said.

Today, she lives and works in Mumbai as an auditor for the Indian Defense Department, a government job coveted by many Indians for its security, prestige and benefits.

In one way, she was part of a trend: Indian women have gained better access to education since her youth, and are now nearly at parity with men. But for most women, education hasn’t led to jobs. Even as more women have begun graduating from school, joblessness has swelled.

“The working age population continues to grow but employment hasn’t kept up, which means the proportion of people with jobs will only decline,” said Mahesh Vyas, director at CMIE, adding there’s been a severe slowdown in good quality jobs in the last decade. “This also keeps women out of the workforce as they or their families may see more benefit in taking care of the home or children, instead of toiling in low-paid work.”

And even when jobs are available, social pressures can keep women away.

In her home village in Uttar Pradesh state, Chauhan hardly ever saw women working outside the home. But when she came to Mumbai in 2006, she saw women swarm public spaces, Chauhan said, serving food in cafes, cutting hair or painting nails in salons, selling tickets for the local trains, or boarding the trains themselves, crammed into packed compartments as they rushed to work. It was motivating to see what was possible, she said.

“When I started working and leaving the house, my family used to say I must be working as a prostitute,” said Lalmani Chauhan, a social worker.

One reason she was able to hold onto her job was because it became a lifeline when an accident left her husband bedridden and unable to work, Chauhan said.

Abraham said there is growing recognition among policymakers that the retreat of women from the workforce is a huge problem, but it has not been met with direct fixes like more childcare facilities or transportation safety.

When more women participate in the labor market, she added, they contribute to the economy and their family’s income, but they also are empowered to make decisions. Children who grow up in a household where both parents work, especially girls, are more likely to be employed later.

The number of working-age Indian women who don’t have jobs is staggering — almost twice the entire number of people in the United States. Experts say this gap could be a huge opportunity if India can find a way to plug it. A 2018 McKinsey report estimated that India could add $552 billion to its GDP by increasing its female workforce participation rate by 10 percent.

Even as she prepares to leave her one-bedroom home, tucked deep inside a narrow lane in a Mumbai slum, Singh is determined to return to the city in the near future. She hopes to find a way to work again, saying she will take whatever job she can find.

“I never had to ask anyone for a single rupee (before),” Singh said, adding she feels shame every time she’s forced to ask her husband.

“I felt independent before. See, I lost a part of myself when I quit my job,” she said. “I want that feeling back.”