Oilsands emissions could be underestimated by current measuring methods, study says

New federal research suggests greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta oilsands may be significantly underestimated, adding to a growing pile of studies that say our understanding of what is going into the atmosphere is incomplete.



In a paper published last week in a prominent U.S. science journal, Environment and Climate Change Canada researchers used new ways of measuring oilsands emissions that resulted in figures at least 65 per cent higher than those reported by industry.

"We found that (emissions) are higher than the CO2 estimates that are reported in the greenhouse gas reporting program," said lead author Sumi Wren of Environment Canada.

The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes how the researchers combined measurements from overflights, satellites and historical data to reach their conclusions.

In 2018, the team made 30 flights over the oilsands region to establish the ratio of nitrogen oxides to carbon dioxide in the industry's emissions. That ratio matched one derived from similar flights in 2013. They then developed estimates for nitrogen dioxide emissions from 2005 to 2020 by combining satellite data with industry-reported values.

Using that historical record and the constant ratio of those gases to carbon dioxide, the team could then calculate how much carbon dioxide had been released over the years.

Their figures suggest the oilsands could be releasing about 31 million tonnes of unreported carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year. As well, that potential under-reporting goes back to at least 2018.

Their margin of error is eight million tonnes either way.

But the difference between their numbers and the industry-reported figures is big enough to suggest something is going on.

"The discrepancy is quite large," said Wren. "It's large enough to point to the need to understand why we're seeing this."

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Industry typically estimates its emissions by comparing known inputs against outputs, with allowances for leakage and other fugitive releases — a so-called "bottom-up" approach. The method is considered reliable and accurate, said co-author John Liggio, also of Environment Canada.

"Bottom-up is quite good," he said.

But when researchers use atmospheric measurement — the "top-down" approach — they consistently get higher readings of whatever it is they're looking for. That pattern has emerged in papers on emissions of methane, soot, volatile organic compounds and sulphur dioxide.

Mark Cameron of the oilsands group Pathways Alliance criticized the study.

"We strongly caution against interpreting from this study that aerial air sampling ... is a better emissions-estimating approach," he said, adding industry uses standard practices in use around the world.

"Inherent weaknesses in the research methods diminish our confidence in its findings."

Cameron called the use of a single ratio simplistic. He said the number of flights was inadequate and the study didn't take into account days when oilsands sites were shuttered for reasons such as maintenance.

But Liggio said the difference between the two measuring systems is big enough to need explanation.

"Bottom-up and top-down both have their inherent uncertainties," he said. "Top-down is a complementary way to identify if there are gaps.

"We need to start thinking about using atmospheric measurements with the bottom-up approach. It's coming, but we're not quite there yet."

Without reconciling those differences, it's hard to set targets for emissions reductions or know if they're being met — a key issue for government and industry climate plans. For example, the 31 million tonnes of unreported carbon is about three times the total amount stored since 2015 through carbon capture and storage, the fix industry hopes will eventually make it carbon-neutral.

More work is needed, said Wren.

"What this work does is point to the importance of having atmospheric measurement to ensure that what is being reported is accurate."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that COVID-19 restrictions eradicated the middle class

Known for his controversial views on vaccinations, Kennedy's presidential campaign is going just as you'd expect

By KELLY MCCLURE

Nights & Weekends Editor
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2023

 

Robert F Kennedy Jr., with his wife Cheryl Hines, waves to supporters during a campaign event to launch his 2024 presidential bid, at the Boston Park Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2023. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announced his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and has been making campaign rounds with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines — best known for her role as Cheryl David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Making an appearance on Fox News this weekend, Kennedy Jr. did not shy away from his controversial beliefs on COVID-19 and vaccinations in general, telling host Neil Cavuto he believes that the restrictions put forth during the pandemic led to the eradication of the middle class.

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"The strength of a nation comes from a strong economy and a vibrant middle class. And we have wiped out the middle class in this country systematically," Kennedy Jr. said.

Going further into his explanation of why he believes the middle class was negatively impacted by the lockdown, the Democratic presidential hopeful said, "Worst of all is what it did to the economy . . . We shifted $4 trillion in wealth from the American middle class to this new aristocracy of billionaires. We created 500 new billionaires. The Oxfam report, which came out this week, shows that the billionaires that existed at the beginning of the pandemic, the people like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Bezos, Bloomberg, etc., increased their wealth by 30% during the pandemic. From the lockdowns. And Amazon got to shut down all of its competitors."

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The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, Jr. went on to describe why he's the best candidate to run against Trump saying:

"I'm in a better position to run against Donald Trump than any of the Democrats because I can hold him accountable for the worst thing that he did, which was the lockdowns. The lockdowns were absolutely catastrophic.

Hines, who has been introducing Kennedy Jr. during this week's campaign events, has previously gone on record as having different beliefs than her husband when it comes to COVID-19 and vaccinations.

In January 2022, Hines gave a statement in response to a comment her husband made which compared vaccine mandates to Anne Frank and Nazi Germany saying, "My husband's reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in D.C. was reprehensible and insensitive. The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own."

What the end of COVID health emergencies means for anti-vaxxers: meltdown

Fox News, after clamoring for weeks to end mask rules, calls new CDC guidance a "distraction"

Americans aren't lining up to get the bivalent COVID booster. Here's how to motivate them

By KELLY MCCLURE
Kelly McClure is a journalist and fiction writer who lives in New Orleans. She is Salon's Nights and Weekends Editor covering daily news, politics and culture. Her work has been featured in Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Vice, and elsewhere. She is the author of Something is Always Happening Somewhere.

COMMENTARY
The Second Amendment is a ludicrous historical antique: Time for it to go

Sooner or later, change will come: Younger Americans won't tolerate this constitutional delusion much longer

By KIRK SWEARINGEN
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2023

A sign that read "Guns" is on display as House Democrats gather for an event on gun violence at the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on March 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. 

(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Those of us who are not gun fetishists are supposed to "keep our powder dry" on the subject, but it must be said: The Second Amendment is as antique as a muzzle-loaded long gun, and should be treated as a historical artifact.

We're not supposed to even whisper such things because the NRA and right-wing extremists have sensible Americans — including many gun owners — so bullied and cowed that we feel we are only allowed to hope for sensible gun-safety legislation around the edges of their highly profitable assault on American lives.

We've said it before, but it is always worth repeating for the millions of younger people coming to voting age each year who may not have considered it before: It doesn't take a grammarian or a constitutional scholar to tell you that the opening clause of the Second Amendment is obviously conditional:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Meaning, so long as a militia of citizens is necessary (and a well-regulated one, at that), then what follows is true. But only if that first part pertains.

It no longer pertains and hasn't since the modern National Guard was formally established in 1916. We've got the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force and even that Space Force thing, as well as the National Guard, with members who swear an oath to both their state and their federal governments. (I note that dual allegiance for all the anti-federalists still lurking out there, seething about some "tyranny" of the federal government, while at the state and local levels you busy yourself with taking away voting rights, reproductive rights, public schools and publicl libraries.)

The six branches of the armed forces, including the National Guard. No other militia need apply. It's covered.

If you want to help protect the interests of your state and your nation, assist citizens during emergencies, understand tactical maneuvers and carry a gun (and learn how to operate it), you can sign up here or here. Join the Coast Guard. Or you can become a police officer. It turns out we need better ones. Your service will be deeply appreciated, if only by lip service from the right-wingers who drone on and on about how much the love the military and the cops.

So, the need for a well-regulated militia, crucial to the early history of the country, is no longer in play. We need to rewrite the amendment, dispensing with the oddball capitalization and punctuation, to fit the times:

The right of the people to serve in the armed services or the National Guard, or to serve as law enforcement officers if duly qualified, shall not be infringed.

I dropped the prefatory clause, since everyone ignores anyway. And that word "militia" has gotten especially confusing of late. Now the thing is up to date.

But don't take my word for it. After the Parkland, Florida, school shootings of 2018, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote an op-ed in the New York Times describing the Second Amendment as "a relic of the 18th century" and arguing it should be repealed. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative appointed by Richard Nixon, said in 1991 that the NRA's reading of the Second Amendment was "a fraud" and said that if he were writing the Bill of Rights today he'd flat-out dump it.

We've got the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Coast Guard, the Air Force and even that Space Force thing, as well as the National Guard. We're covered. No other "militia" need apply.

The current batch of right-wing Supreme Court justices sponsored by the Federalist Society have further discredited the high court by pretending they can peer into the hearts and minds of the founders as a way to keep the country hobbled on this issue. It's always worth noting (especially, again, for younger voters) that the Heller decision, in which Justice Antonin Scalia simply divorced the "keep and bear arms" part of Second Amendment from any connection to militia membership, was in 2008, not way back at the foundation of the republic.

We don't live in colonial times, people. We live in these-here times — days of conspiracy theories, white nationalism and so-called government leaders who do all they can to prove government cannot work, who praise despots and work with them to undermine democracy, who call journalists "the enemy of the people" and dehumanize their political opponents.

OK, none of that is entirely new to American history, but today we live in a country where there are more guns than people, where there are more mass shootings than days on the calendar, where Fox News has gun-clutching people living in a constant state of paranoia and fear, where young people are increasingly paying with their lives.

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If we could somehow summon up Franklin or Madison or Hamilton to speak to us on the gun issue, I imagine they'd have a lot to say. One suspects the founders would take a look at modern handguns and assault weapons, learn how they operate and tell us a bit more about the intent of the Second Amendment. They would say, I think, that the citizens' right to safety and the pursuit of happiness far outweighs any imagined individual right to own a weapon of war or carry any kind of gun in public.

Those who claim to be both "pro-life" and "pro-gun" should be aware that the rest of us consider those terms absurdly paired — and we see through the marketing fluff of "pro-life" used in place of "anti-abortion," as well as the "pro-life" willingness to let women die in childbirth an abandon kids to lives of poverty. But in this country, where politicians of a certain stripe are busy teaching us that up is down and facts aren't facts, and where the NRA owns many of those politicians, we see people being gunned down every day in every venue one can imagine — shopping centers, grocery stores, movie theaters, concerts, hospitals, churches, schools.

The vast majority of citizens want sensible gun regulations now. Parents and younger Americans of all political stripes are frustrated and deeply unhappy with gun culture, with all its simmering fear and dread about the next news bulletin and days of fruitless discussion of the shooter and his motive, and the hopelessness created by talk of the "slippery slope" if we take any action to stop the carnage.

This is what political operatives on the right have done so well for decades: They work the refs and move the goalposts until any objections to their aims are no longer recognized as legitimate. That "well regulated Militia being necessary" becomes (courtesy of the NRA and Scalia) no militia need apply becomes a tradition with deep roots in our culture becomes a God-given right.
It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic, and if guns weren't now the leading cause of death of younger Americans.

Young people recoil at the Second Amendment argument even more than they cringe at that out-of-fashion furniture their parents have piled up in the basement and are now offering them. Thanks, but no thanks.

We parents would like our children (and grandchildren) to be safe when they are at the movies, in a mall, in church, at school. All of us would like to feel safe in public spaces. We don't need to hear a single damn thing from a criminal organization like the NRA or from politicians in the pockets of that criminal organization.

The Second Amendment is an antique curiosity — laughably outmoded for our times. It's time for it to go.

We must say it precisely because we have been so bullied for so long into believing that we must not or cannot say it. One day, if we can keep our democracy intact against the frantic efforts of the self-proclaimed American "patriots," younger Americans will band together to do what they did with laws against marijuana laws and will do in short order with restrictions on reproductive rights: They'll put the Second Amendment right where it belongs, in the dustbin of history, already piled way too high with spent shells and needless deaths.

Kirk Swearingen is a poet and independent journalist. He is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, and his work has appeared in Delmar, MARGIE, Bloom, the American Journal of Poetry, Riverfront Times, Medium and Salon.

Syria Kurds seek talks with Damascus amid regional detente

"We affirm our readiness to meet and talk with the Syrian government and with all Syrian parties to hold discussions and present initiatives for a solution."

 AFP 2023/04/19 

Officials of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) 

(Photo: AANES).
Syria Syria Rojava AANES Assad Damascus

Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration said it was ready for talks with Damascus, as the government's ties with Arab states thaw more than a decade after the country's war broke out.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad rejects the Kurdish administration in north and northeast Syria and accuses it of "separatism".

Several rounds of talks since 2018 between Damascus and the Kurds -- who control most of the country's major oil and gas fields -- have failed to achieve any results.

"We affirm our readiness to meet and talk with the Syrian government and with all Syrian parties to hold discussions and present initiatives for a solution," the Kurdish authorities said.

The statement denied any separatist ambitions, "affirming Syria's territorial integrity" and calling for Syria's resources to be shared "fairly".

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish administration's de facto army, spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, driving it from its last stronghold in the country in 2019 with US backing.

Assad has been politically isolated in the region since Syria's war began in 2011, but a devastating February 6 earthquake that killed thousands in Turkey and Syria sparked Arab outreach.

A flurry of diplomatic activity has been underway in past weeks as Middle East rivals Saudi Arabia and the Syrian government's ally Iran patched up ties, shifting regional relations.

On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with Assad in Damascus, in the first visit by a Saudi official since the conflict began.

The pair discussed steps to achieve a political settlement for Syria's return to the Arab fold, according to the Saudi foreign ministry.

Last week, diplomats from nine Arab countries met in Saudi Arabia to discuss ending Syria's long spell in the diplomatic wilderness, and Syria's foreign minister visited Saudi Arabia for the first time in over a decade.

The Kurds in the statement urged "Arab countries, the United Nations and international forces... to play an active and positive role in searching for a common solution".

They said they were ready to share resources including oil and gas "through an agreement with the Syrian government" following "dialogue and negotiation".

Turkey has also made overtures towards Damascus in recent months, stoking further fears among Syria's Kurds.

Ankara considers the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- which dominate the SDF -- as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

"Any party or individual working for a foreign power is simply a traitor and a collaborator," Assad told broadcaster Russia Today in an interview last month, when asked about the YPG.

Qaladze bombardment was another chapter of Ba’ath atrocity, says KDP Barzani

The will of the Kurdish people triumphed because it was stronger than the napalm bombs and warplanes, he added.

 
 Kurdistan 24 

Masoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). 

(Photo: Barzani Headquarters)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Commemorating the 49th anniversary of the bombardment of Qaladze town by the former Ba’athist regime, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) President Masoud Barzani on Monday said the tragedy was just "another chapter" of the atrocities of the former regime.

On Apr. 24, 1974, the Iraqi Ba’athist regime dropped napalm bombs on the border town of Qaladze, where the University of Sulaimani was located. Hundreds were killed in the attack, including students and lecturers.

“The tragedy was a colossal oppression of the Kurdish people and marked another chapter of the Ba'ath regime's atrocities,” Barzani wrote in a tweet, paying tribute to those who were killed by the attack.

"The will of the people of Kurdistan proved then and continues to prove to be stronger than cruelty and injustice," the former president of the Kurdistan Region added.

Years later, in 1982, when local people of the town held a demonstration commemorating the massacre, the regime violently cracked down on them, killing two women: Mother Amina and Sister Mahmood.

The former regime, which was toppled in 2003 by a US-led coalition and Kurdish forces, had committed numerous atrocities against the Iraqi people, particularly the Kurds, including the chemical bombardments of Halabja and the ethnic cleansing campaign of Anfal.

Following his surrender to the American forces, the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was tried in court for crimes against humanity and other gross violations. He was executed in December 2006 in Baghdad.

Leaked Docs: Ukraine planned to work with SDF to attack Russia in Syria

The objective of the plans, which never materialized, was to orchestrate “deniable attacks” on Russian targets in Syria, which “would avoid implicating the Ukrainian government itself.”

 
 Laurie Mylroie 

Kurdistan 24

 2023/04/23 

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters pose for a photo in Baghouz, Syria, after the SDF declared the area free of Islamic State militants. 

(Photo: Maya Alleruzzo/ AP)

Classified U.S. documents were posted to chat groups on the internet by a reserve Air Force technician. That became known early this month, after which the young man responsible was arrested. Major U.S. media have a substantial number of those documents, and as those of particular interest to our readers emerge, Kurdistan24 will be reporting on them.

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – Last year, Ukraine was developing plans to work with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to attack Russian troops in Syria. However, in late December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called a halt to that planning, as The Washington Post reported, citing a leaked U.S. document that dates from January 2023.

The document details Ukrainian planning for such an attack, although one never occurred.

A spokesman for the SDF, Farhad Shami, denied the authenticity of the document, claiming that his organization has been neutral regarding the war in Ukraine.

Russian Military Presence in Syria

Russia’s 2015 intervention in Syria “to help the embattled Assad regime retain power during the civil war has created a permanent presence of thousands of Russian troops” in that country, the Post stated, as it explained that the Russian presence includes “advanced warplanes and air defense systems,” as well as ground forces, some of which are deployed in northeast Syria.

Russia’s military intervention in Syria began on Sept. 30, 2015, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the opening of the U.N. General Assembly. It was the first time in a decade that he had done so,

Standing before the diplomats assembled in New York, Putin denounced the U.S. policy of overthrowing Middle Eastern regimes and promoting democracy instead. Leaders like Bashar al-Assad, he claimed, were necessary to avoid that chaos that had ensued.

“Rather than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions and the lifestyle itself,” Putin affirmed. “Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster,” he charged, before asking, rhetorically, “Do you see what you have done?”

Read More: U.S. Reaffirms Position on Isolating Syria, as Arab Reconciliation Continues

Two days after Putin’s address to the General Assembly, Russia’s bombing campaign against the Syrian opposition and in support of Assad began. A month later, the private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Putin, also deployed to Syria.

Ukrainian Planning to Work with SDF

Leaked classified U.S. documents show alleged Ukrainian plans to work with the SDF to attack Russian forces in Syria

The objective of the Ukrainian plans, which were developed by its military intelligence service, was to orchestrate “deniable attacks” on Russian targets, which “would avoid implicating the Ukrainian government itself,” the Post reported.

“Ukrainian military intelligence officers favored striking Russian forces using unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] and starting ‘small,’” the Post said. Another possibility they considered was to limit attacks to the Wagner Group, as they judged that would be less likely to provoke a strong Russian response.

They also considered training SDF troops to strike Russian targets and conduct ‘unspecified direct action activities along with UAV attacks,’” it reported, citing the leaked U.S. document.

The SDF, in turn, sought “training, air defense systems and a guarantee that its role would be kept secret.” In addition, the SDF prohibited strikes on Russian forces in the area of Syria under its control.

However, in late December, Zelensky ordered a halt to that planning, according to the leaked document, although it did not reveal the reasons for his decision.

Did Turkey try to promote Russian Attacks on the SDF?

The document also discusses the attitude of the Turkish government, which was aware of Ukraine’s planning to strike Russian targets in Syria.

Turkish officials “sought to avoid potential blowback” from any such attack, the document states. It explains, as the Post reported, that Ankara suggested Ukraine “stage its attacks from Kurdish areas instead of those in the north and northwest held by other rebel groups, some of them backed by Turkey.”

Had that actually happened, Russia may well have retaliated harshly against the SDF. However, events never developed to the point where they were anywhere near to such action..

WHITE CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN RITES
The Handmaid’s Tale among the books banned in ‘parents rights’ push across the US

ByPatricia Mazzei, Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter

April 23, 2023 — 

Jacksonville, Florida: Two years into a surge of book bans across the United States, Florida is a hot spot in the clash over what reading material is appropriate for children, with laws that have greatly expanded the state’s ability to restrict books.

Historically, books were challenged one at a time. As bans in schools and libraries began increasing nationally in 2021, efforts were largely local, led by a parent or a group. But over the past year, access to books, particularly those touching on race, gender or sexual orientation, became increasingly politicised. With that came an increase in legislation and regulations in some states and school districts that affected which books libraries could offer.

Protesters in Washington are dressed as characters from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The book’s depiction of an oppressive dystopia has become a popular symbol among rights campaigners. CREDIT:AP

The shift is particularly evident in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican-controlled Legislature and a rapidly growing network of conservative groups aligned to pass three state laws last year aimed, at least in part, at reading or educational materials. Among the books removed from circulation in one of the state’s school districts are Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

The policies have energised DeSantis’ supporters and are part of the platform from which he is expected to run for president.

Proponents of the restrictions say their aims are to protect students from inappropriate materials and to give parents more control over their children’s education. In focusing on “parents’ rights,” DeSantis is trying to build on the popularity he amassed when he resisted COVID-19 restrictions, particularly in schools. The push is a signature part of the conservatism he is showcasing in Florida. His Parental Rights in Education law, for example, constrains instruction on gender and sexuality, which has led some districts to remove books with LGBTQ characters.

Some teachers and librarians say the policies are vague, with imprecise language and broad requirements, leading to some confusion. But they are trying to comply. Violation of the law could be a third-degree felony; in general, such crimes are punishable by up to five years in prison

Books that are among a ban list at a rally in Tallahassee, Florida, on March 21, 2023.

CREDIT:AGNES LOPEZ/THE NEW YORK TIMES

In January, when the new guidelines went into effect, some teachers removed or covered up books that had not been vetted by certified media specialists, whose approval is now legally required. Others are not ordering titles that could draw complaints. Some educators emptied shelves or pulled collections until the titles could be reassessed.

“It is a whole new level of fear,” said Kathleen Daniels, president of the Florida Association for Media in Education, a professional organisation for school librarians and media educators. “There are books that are not being selected because they have been challenged.”

Florida ranks second, behind Texas, as the state with the highest number of book removals, according to a report released last Thursday from free-speech organisation PEN America, which tracked book bans in schools from July 1 to December 31. But PEN said Florida’s broad, state-level approach, with “wholesale bans” that restrict access to “untold numbers of books in classrooms and school libraries,” made the true extent of book removals in the state difficult to quantify.

Many of the new restrictions come from a law passed last year that requires trained media specialists to evaluate each schoolbook to ensure that it is age-appropriate and free of “pornographic” content. The law also requires schools to keep a searchable online database of the books in their libraries and classrooms.

Brian Covey in Jacksonville, Fla. on March 16, 2023. Covey posted a video of empty library shelves in the middle school where he was teaching as a substitute. He was later fired from his job.

CREDIT:ANNA OTTUM/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Proposed legislation goes further. In March, the Florida House passed a bill that could require schools to remove a book promptly based on a single complaint from a parent or county resident that the book depicted sexual conduct. Under the proposed bill, the book would remain unavailable until the complaint was resolved.

Two other laws are contributing to book bans in Florida schools. The Stop WOKE Act prohibits instruction that could make students feel guilty or responsible for the past actions of other members of their race. The Parents Rights in Education law prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary grades; a state rule is expected to expand the restrictions through 12th grade.

Efforts by Florida’s 67 public school districts to put the new regulations into practice have been uneven and often chaotic. Some districts have taken no major action. Others enacted blanket removals that essentially gutted libraries.

Earlier this year, soon after the new guidelines for libraries were issued in January, some districts moved quickly to comply. In Duval County, home to Jacksonville, the public school district restricted access to more than 1 million titles, keeping them out of students’ hands until they were vetted by specialists. In Manatee County, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, some teachers boxed up their classroom libraries or covered their shelves. Officials in Martin County, on the state’s Atlantic Coast, removed around 150 books from school circulation in January and February, including John Green’s Looking for Alaska and James Patterson’s Maximum Ride, a series of sci-fi adventure books for readers ages 10 and up, which were pulled from elementary schools.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.CREDIT:AP

Patterson, who lives in Palm Beach, called the removal of his books “frightening”.

“When you can take a mainstream series like Maximum Ride and take it off the shelves,” he said, “it shows that no one is safe.” A county spreadsheet gave no specific reason for the series’ removal.

Training material advised media specialists to consider how they would feel reading passages from the book in question aloud. “If you would not be comfortable reading the material in a public setting,” said a slideshow by the state’s Department of Education, “then you should lean towards not making the material available in a school library for children.”

Jennifer Pippin leads a local chapter of the group Mums for Liberty in Florida and was on the Department of Education panel that helped design the training materials. She said books that had been removed from school libraries in the state should not be considered “banned” because they remained available at public libraries and in bookstores.

Young people in a school library might happen to pick up a book that contains a graphic rape scene, she said, because they enjoyed other volumes in the same series. Or a child interested in penguins might open a book about a penguin family with two dads. But “it may not be appropriate for them per their parents’ standards,” she said. “With no instruction or parental guidance, some of these things could indeed be harmful.”

In Duval County, the school district asked the district’s 54 media specialists in January to begin reviewing the more than 1.6 million titles. Unapproved books, elementary teachers were told, had to be covered or set aside.

About 25,000 books had cleared the review process as of early this month. The ongoing process has left Duval County’s more than 129,000 students with access to only a tiny fraction of available titles, critics said.

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“Our books are being shadow-banned,” said Nina Perez, a Jacksonville resident and a director for MumsRising, an advocacy organisation opposing the restrictions. “They get mired in an administrative process.”

Tracy Pierce, a Duval school district spokesperson, said in an email last month that the actions had followed guidance from the state’s Department of Education. At no time should classrooms have been without reading material, she said, since students still had access to approved books and collections. She acknowledged that “a small number of principals did close or overly restrict” media centres briefly and were advised to restore access.

DeSantis has reacted aggressively to criticism that public schools are banning books. He dismissed news reports that Duval County schools had removed a title about baseball player Roberto Clemente as “a joke,” accusing critics of “manufacturing” a narrative about book bans.

The book, which addresses the racism that Clemente faced, was removed and then restored in February after a review. Last month, the state’s education commissioner named the title, Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter, a book of the month for third through fifth grades.

At a news conference last month, DeSantis stood behind a sign that read “Exposing the Book Ban HOAX” and said that the state was trying to protect children from pornographic material. The event began with a presentation on books reported to districts for removal — including Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe, and Flamer, by Mike Curato – and highlighted scenes about sexual contact and masturbation.


“This idea of a book ban in Florida, that somehow they don’t want books in the library – that’s a hoax,” DeSantis said. “And that’s really a nasty hoax, because it’s a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualise our children.”

Critics in the state are pushing back. In March, Democracy Forward, an advocacy organisation, filed a lawsuit with the state on behalf of the Florida Education Association and other groups challenging the rules, arguing that they censor educators, limit students’ access to books and harm public education. The Florida Freedom to Read Project organised a rally in Tallahassee last month with authors and free-speech activists to protest censorship.

After Brian Covey, a substitute teacher in Jacksonville, posted a video in January of empty library shelves at a Duval County middle school, a reporter asked DeSantis about it. DeSantis called the video a “fake narrative.” Covey, who lost his job shortly after, said he was troubled that DeSantis and the school district tried to delegitimise what he had documented.

The fact that they called it a false narrative, Covey said, “tells me that they have no intention of saying, ‘We made a mistake.’”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times

Giant SpaceX rocket leaves crater, serious damage at Texas base

By AFP
Published April 23, 2023

This photo from April 22, 2023 shows damage to the area around the launch pad in Texas of SpaceX's huge Starship rocket; a test launch ended with the rocket's destruction 

- Copyright AFP/File Olivier DOULIERY

Patrick FALLON with Lucie AUBOURG in Washington

Flying chunks of concrete, twisted metal sheets, craters blasted deep into the ground: the thunderous power of SpaceX’s first test flight of Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — inflicted serious damage on its Texas launch site.

Repairing the damage from Thursday’s unmanned test flight is expected to take months, potentially delaying further launch attempts and slowing the development of a rocket NASA plans to use on its upcoming Moon missions.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk had said before the test that just getting Starship in the air without destroying its launch pad would be “a win.”

Luckily for Musk, the 390-foot-tall (120-meter) rocket successfully lifted off, climbing for about four minutes until it tumbled and exploded, well over the Gulf of Mexico.

But SpaceX engineers may have underestimated the damage that Starship’s 33 first-stage rocket engines would do.

A few days later, the scene around the launch pad is one of desolation, an AFP photographer saw.

During takeoff, SpaceX video showed a hail of debris being blasted as far as the Gulf of Mexico, over 1,400 feet (420 meters) away. According to local press reports, a cloud of dust floated over a small town several miles (kilometers) away.

Photos of the launch site show the gigantic launch tower still standing while the rocket mount, which supports Starship before liftoff, damaged but still intact.

Beneath it, however, lies a huge crater, images posted on social media showed.

“The force of the engines when they throttled up may have shattered the concrete, rather than simply eroding it,” Musk conceded Saturday on Twitter — another company in his portfolio.

– A delay of months –

Olivier de Weck, a professor of astronautics and engineering at MIT, told AFP that “the radius of debris and disturbance was probably bigger than anybody anticipated.”

“The main damage to the launch pad is underneath, where the flames impinge on the ground,” he told AFP, adding that repairing the crater “will take several months.”

De Weck said that Starship’s launch site, unlike others used for such large rockets, lacked a “water deluge system.”

Those are used to flood the pad with water, cooling it and absorbing shock and sound waves.

The Texas site also lacks what is known as a flame trench — tunnels which channel hot exhaust away from the pad.

Such features come at a high price though, particularly when they have to stand up to the earth-shaking power of Starship.

After Thursday’s test, Musk said that SpaceX had begun building “a massive water-cooled steel plate to go under the launch mount.”

But it “wasn’t ready in time,” and engineers “wrongly” calculated that the pad could still withstand the test.

Known for audacious goal-setting, Musk estimates that a next launch attempt could be carried out as soon as “one to two months.”

– Melting steel –

Scientist Philip Metzger, who previously worked for NASA on launch pad physics, said he thought the steel plate plan could have been “a good solution.”

“The problem,” he added, “is that this is such a large rocket and it takes so long to get off the pad,” that the heat from the rocket’s 33 engines “possibly could melt the steel.”

That could be solved by pumping water through channels in the steel, “so long as they have a high enough flow rate,” said Metzger, now a professor at the University of Central Florida.

He said the approach would not entirely solve the problem of shock waves, but he believes it’s possible Starship has been designed to be solid enough to survive.

Designing a launch pad, Metzger told AFP, can be just as complicated as developing a rocket.

The maiden launch in November of NASA’s new mega-rocket, the SLS, also caused damage to its launch pad in Florida, notably knocking launch-tower elevators out of service.

Before its next test flight, SpaceX will need to determine the exact problems behind Thursday’s test.

In video broadcast by the company, several of Starship’s 33 engines appeared to malfunction.

The rocket’s two stages also did not separate as planned, forcing SpaceX to trigger a self-destruct mechanism.

The private aerospace firm will also have to persuade the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to authorize a new flight, noted de Weck.

The US agency, which is leading an investigation into the explosion, has confirmed that no injuries resulted from Thursday’s test. It has said that no new tests will be approved if there is any threat to public safety.

De Weck echoed Musk’s evaluation of the trial, calling it “more a success than a failure.”

“The reason they’re achieving these incredible capabilities,” the MIT professor continued, “is because they are willing to take risks and break things.

“But they learn from it, and improve very, very quickly.”

MONDAY MORNING MEDIA FIRINGS

Tucker Carlson and Fox News part ways

DID NOT SEE THAT COMING

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 04/24/23 

AP Photo/Richard Drew
Tucker Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio in New York.

Tucker Carlson has parted ways with Fox News, the network said on Monday.

“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the network said in a statement.

Carlson’s last show was Friday, the network said.

Fox said it would air a new program called “Fox News Tonight” at 8 p.m. starting Monday evening as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.

Carlson was Fox’s top-rated prime time host, netting an average of more than 3 million viewers per night, the most of any pundit on cable television.

More coverage on Fox News from The Hill:

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The biggest takeaways from the Fox News / Dominion settlement

Carlson’s departure from the network came less than a week after it agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over coverage of former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and the company’s software.

Depositions taken by Dominion’s lawyers exposed a number of private communications from top hosts at the network, including Carlson.

In one widely publicized text exchange with fellow primetime hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, Carlson said he hated Trump “passionately” and called the former president’s claims of voter fraud “insane.”

Carlson’s show launched in 2016 and regularly featured controversial guests and segments on matters of race, immigration and other hot political topics of the day.

His hourlong opinion program, which featured an opening monologue and guest interviews, often acted as a proving ground for Republican office-seekers and conservative activists looking to broaden their reach with voters and donors.

Earlier this month, Trump sat for an extensive interview with Carlson, which the former president used to bash Democrats and the media.

Don Lemon is out at CNN

PREDICTABLE

REUTERS/Mike Segar

THE NEWS

CNN has parted ways with Don Lemon, its star anchor who had a rocky start as the co-host of a new morning show.

"Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years," the network said in a statement. "We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors."

KNOW MORE

In a tweeted statement, Lemon said that his agent told him Monday that his contract had been terminated, criticizing CNN leadership for not having the "decency" to tell him directly.

"It is clear that there are some larger issues at play," he wrote.

CNN responded saying Lemon's statement is "inaccurate."

"He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter," the network's public relations team said.

Lemon's ouster was the second major shakeup in cable news on Monday. Minutes earlier, Fox News announced that it has parted ways with star primetime host Tucker Carlson.

STEP BACK

Lemon joined CNN in 2006 and hosted a late evening show from 2014 to 2022. Late last year he was announced as a co-host of the new show "CNN This Morning," alongside Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.

Lemon came under fire in February after making remarks about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley which were widely seen as sexist. In a segment broadcasted live on-air, Lemon said that Haley "isn't in her prime," adding that "a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s."

When asked about Lemon at the Semafor Media Summit earlier this month, CNN CEO Chris Licht said he "is a lightning rod because he really came to prominence during an era where that was celebrated and encouraged in prime time ... The world has moved on from that. Don has moved on from that."

An ancient Roman bust purchased for $34.99 at Texas Goodwill is headed back to Germany

Published 23rd April 2023

Credit: Courtesy Laura Young

Written by Sara Smart, CNN

From its time in Germany during World War II to the shelves of a Texas Goodwill, a 2,000-year-old Roman bust is making its way back home.

In 2018, Laura Young purchased the bust for just $34.99 at an Austin-area Goodwill, unaware of its ancient history. "I was just looking for anything that looked interesting," Young told CNN last May.

The bust was lent out from Munich's Glyptothek to the San Antonio Museum of Art for the past year and next month it will be returned to Germany.

"It's been really bittersweet," Young told CNN on Thursday. "I'm a little in denial, but I do plan on visiting him in Germany."

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When researching where the bust came from last year, Young was put in contact with Sotheby's, which confirmed that the bust was estimated to be about 2,000 years old.
The identity of the bust is not certain yet, but the team at SAMA told CNN they believe it resembles the Roman military leader Sextus Pompey.

"I, along with some other scholars who worked from photographs of the German example after its disappearance, have suggested Sextus Pompey, based on similarities to portraits of his father, Pompey the Great, and to the coin that was included on the label in SAMA's exhibition of the portrait, which has a portrait of Sextus on it." Lynley McAlpine, a postdoctoral curatorial fellow at SAMA, said.

The portrait displayed in the courtyard of the Pompejanum, Aschaffenburg, 1931. Credit: From Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes

The bust was originally housed in a replica of a Pompeii home, also known as Pompejanum, and was moved to storage just before the building was destroyed during the war.

It is then believed that around the 1950s a US soldier stole the bust and brought it to the US, which is how it eventually ended up at the thrift store and in the hands of Young.

Laura Young bought the 52-pound marble Roman bust for $34.99 at an Austin-area Goodwill. Credit: Courtesy Laura Young

For the past year, the 52-pound marble bust has been seen by thousands of guests at SAMA, including the Archduke Carl Christian of Austria and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

May 21 will be the artifact's last day at the museum, when it will then be shipped back to Germany.

SAMA says the bust will join two other Roman sculptures from the museum and will travel back to Germany to be together again for the first time in years.

A representative from Glyptothek will oversee the packing process of the artifacts and personally shepherd them back to their home.

The bumpy road to Africa's returned artifacts attracting tourism investment

Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images


THE SCENE


BENIN CITY, Nigeria — One of the most recognizable landmarks when flying into the ancient city of Benin in Nigeria, home of the prestigious Benin bronzes, is the red cylindrical National Museum.

On a recent visit on a Saturday, the museum was unexpectedly quiet, with just two visitors during the two hours I was there. It was the first visit for both of them, one a Benin City resident, and they had been hoping to see Benin artifacts that had been returned to Nigeria. The museum’s curator, Mark Olaitan, said the returned items "haven’t been mounted or exhibited yet."

The museum visitor numbers have risen slowly since the end of restrictions on movement imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Olaitan predicted confidently that the museum would soon be overwhelmed by the volume of visitors when exhibitions featuring the returned items are fully opened to the public.


KNOW MORE


The majority of African artifacts in museums are held outside Africa, with more than half a million in European institutions alone. Over 4,000 objects looted from Benin City by British soldiers in 1897 (pictured below) — commonly referred to as the Benin Bronzes — are among the most notable of these artifacts. They have been at the forefront of campaigns calling for the restitution of African artifacts.

Reginald Granville/Creative Commons license

Museums and universities in Europe and America last year began returning looted Benin artifacts in their collections to Nigeria, nearly a century after traditional ruler Oba Akenzua II championed the demand for restitution in 1935.

Last year the governments and intuitions of the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany transferred the "ownership" of about 121 Benin artifacts to Nigeria. The transfers often involve agreements whereby some of these objects remain in these foreign museums on loan. Olaitan said agreements signed by Nigeria with other countries include “capacity building, staff training, [and] exchange programs” that would help improve Nigerian museums.

The global campaign for the return of the bronzes has attracted investment to Edo state to build a cultural district in Benin City. The investment includes the building of the Edo Royal Museum, the Edo Museum of West African Arts (EMOWAA) with the EMOWAA Pavilion (research and educational facility), and Benin City Mall amongst other features.

Olaitan is optimistic that the construction of these buildings as well as the staffing of these institutions will create job opportunities and attract visitors to the state, particularly leisure tourists.


UWAGBALE'S VIEW


The return of artifacts like these is an opportunity for African countries to reap huge economic benefits. Governments can boost revenues through museum attendance as well as through money spent by visitors, from hotel accommodation to restaurants and souvenir shops. A multi-layered domestic and international tourism industry also creates jobs.

The United Kingdom has shown the economic benefits of displaying cultural artifacts — many of which were plundered from Africa. In just three months between April and June 2022, some 8.3 million people visited the country’s 15 government-sponsored museums and galleries including the British Museum, which has the single largest collection of Benin bronzes in the world. Those visitor numbers are still down from between 11 million to 14 million each year before the pandemic. These museums and galleries contributed £73 million ($88 million) to the British economy in June 2022.

The Edo state government is working on ways to replicate that success once the items have been returned home. The state, leveraging its rich cultural heritage, launched a tourism master plan in September 2022. The plan includes the development of a tourism corridor connecting about 72 different tourism sites including a wildlife park, and cultural and natural sites, with the government targeting 2 trillion naira ($4.3 billion) of tourism revenue in the next 10 years.

"The artifacts being returned to Africa present a strong opportunity to develop cultural heritage tourism seriously," said Adunola Okupe, the CEO of tourism consultancy Red Clay Advisory which has experience across West Africa. "There is a strong multiplier effect that will generate even more returns to other industries than tourism alone."


THE VIEW FROM COTONOU


The modern-day Republic of Benin, to the west of Nigeria, is not to be confused with Nigeria’s Benin City. The West African country, which was colonized by France, was once dominated by the Dahomey Kingdom which produced many great art works. Today Benin Republic is developing its own cultural heritage tourism.

Gerard Julien/AFP via Getty Images

With the return, in November 2021, of 26 artifacts looted by France’s colonial troops, its government announced the creation of the Museum of the Epic of the Amazons and Kings of Dahomey in Abomey to house the items returned along with a collection of some 350 art objects.

The project includes the rehabilitation of four royal palaces that attracted a grant and a loan $38 million from the French Development Agency (AFD). A free exhibition last year which lasted several months reportedly attracted more than 200,000 visitors with domestic visitors making up 90% of the total.


ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT


While there’s been much public and government support in both African countries and former colonial powers for the return of artifacts, there has been some push back. Some European curators have gone as far as questioning if these valuable items would be well preserved in countries without a strong museum tradition or investment.

There has been displeasure from unexpected quarters as well. An African-American campaign group filed a lawsuit in November 2022 to stop the return of some Benin Bronzes from the Smithsonian Museum to Nigeria, arguing that returning the bronzes would deny them the opportunity to experience their shared culture and history. They claimed the artifacts are also part of their heritage as descendants of an enslaved person from the region controlled by ancient Benin.


NOTABLE
While the push to return artifacts feels very much a late post-colonial movement in the age of Black Lives Matter and South Africa’s Rhodes Must Fall — it is not. Back in the sixties, the decade of independence for many African countries, there was a strong push for the return of artifacts but for a variety of reasons it had faded by the eighties.