It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, February 05, 2024
Chinese turn U.S. embassy post into 'Wailing Wall' for stock plunge
Reuters Sun, February 4, 2024 A general view of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing
BEIJING (Reuters) - Many Chinese are venting their frustration at the slowing economy and the weak stock market in an unconventional place: the social media account of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
A post on Friday on protecting wild giraffes by the U.S. embassy on Weibo, a Chinese platform similar to X, has attracted 130,000 comments and 15,000 reposts as of Sunday, many of them unrelated to wildlife conservation.
"Could you spare us some missiles to bomb away the Shanghai Stock Exchange?" one user wrote in an repost of the article.
The Weibo account of the U.S. embassy in China "has become the Wailing Wall of Chinese retail equity investors", another user wrote.
The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
While Weibo users can publish individual posts about the market and the economy, Chinese authorities regularly block what they view as "negative" online comments when they gain traction.
The comments function on posts related to the economy or the markets on social media platforms can also be turned off, or only show selected comments, restricting channels in which people can express their opinions.
China's blue-chip CSI300 Index tumbled 6.3% last month, plumbing five-year lows, after a raft of government support measures failed to prop up confidence dented by multiple economic headwinds, including a multi-year property slump, tepid domestic consumption and deflationary pressures.
In late January, state media reported that China will take more "forceful" measures to support market confidence after a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.
Chinese authorities have since ramped up efforts to calm investors, sending out positive messages that sometimes produce the opposite effect.
On Friday, the official People's Daily published an article with the headline: "The entire country is filled with optimism".
The headline was soon mocked on Chinese social media.
A Weibo user, in an repost of the U.S. embassy's giraffe protection article, wrote: "The entire giraffe community is filled with optimism."
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; editing by Miral Fahmy)
Chinese students are paying the price for US intelligence concerns
Lexi Lonas Mon, February 5, 2024
Chinese students seeking to study in America are feeling the heat over U.S. concerns about intelligence and Beijing’s influence over higher education, in some cases leading to them being denied entry to the country.
Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng at a recent event celebrating student exchanges accused the United States of unfairly questioning dozens of students who had valid visas at airports and ultimately not letting them in.
“They held valid visas, had no criminal records, and were returning to school after traveling elsewhere or reuniting with their family in China. But when they landed at the airport, what awaited them was eight-hour-long interrogation by officers, who prohibited them from contacting their parents, made groundless accusations against them and even forcibly repatriated them and banned their entry,” Xie said. “This is absolutely unacceptable.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter.
Chinese nationals make up the largest portion of international students coming to the U.S., accounting for more than 280,000 visas in 2023 out of the 600,000 given by the State Department.
Despite Chinese students in many cases facing longer wait times for visas than those from other countries, approval is often not the last step.
“The lengthy questioning of Chinese students with properly issued visas and the sending of some of those students back to China undermines confidence in the United States and results in some able Chinese students going to third countries. I also object to the questioning of Americans with properly issued visas by Chinese immigration authorities,” said Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
“Both governments have extremely able officials in the embassies and consulates in each other’s country. They perform extensive diligence on all applicants and reject many. Their decisions need to be respected. The leadership of both countries need to inform its immigration authorities that except in the case of immigration fraud, the visa issuance will be respected,” he added.
But until an individual is past a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint, it is not uncommon for them to be questioned and turned away.
Sophia Gregg, a Virginia-based immigrants’ rights attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said border patrol agents have wide discretion on who can come in to the country, even when valid visas are issued.
“Before you pass customs control, you’re still in control by the customs and border and — U.S. immigration — they can deny you entry or visa for any facially legitimate and bona fide reason,” Gregg said.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have been growing increasingly concerned about about Chinese spies across multiple sectors, including some accused on college campuses.
In 2019, a Chinese student in Chicago was indicted after he was in contact with high-level Chinese intelligence officers, giving them background on U.S.-based individuals who could potentially be recruited to spy for China, CNN reported.
“They don’t just come here to spy. … They come here to study, and a lot of it is legitimate,” Joe Augustyn, a former CIA officer, told the news network. “But there is no question in my mind, depending on where they are and what they are doing, that they have a role to play for their government.”
Lawmakers have also specifically targeted Beijing-affiliated Confucius Institutes at colleges campuses.
Last year, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), cheered New York’s “Alfred University finally doing the right thing and shutting down its Confucius Institute.”
“But the Confucius Institute is only one tool in the CCP’s toolbox — it will use research partnerships, talent programs, and other initiatives to gain access to sensitive research and technologies that fuel the [People’s Liberation Army’s] advancement,” Gallagher said.
“We’re going to continue to dig into the facts to make sure that no American taxpayer dollars are supporting research partnerships that the CCP can exploit for its own purposes,” he added.
The Chinese Embassy did not respond to The Hill’s request for further comment.
Experts argue, however, that the vast majority of Chinese students are here for legitimate studies and are willing to take the risk to get here for a good education.
One big concern the U.S. has currently is that many Chinese students are coming to the country to study science or technology, two sectors of particular interest, said Swallow Yan, president of the U.S. Education Without Borders.
But he said students are coming to the U.S. for those subjects because Chinese “parents and students really consider America the No. 1 country for education for science or technology for professional opportunities.”
House members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) last week announced they are working to stop the return of the “China Initiative,” which was supposed to target espionage, from former President Trump’s tenure. They argue the program, which Republicans are attempting to revive, did little to stop spies but did target people of Chinese descent.
A letter was sent to House and Senate leaders by dozens of lawmakers advocating for the China Initiative to be dropped from a funding bill.
“We have to have a nuanced, evidence-based approach to our relations with China, including within higher education and research. We can protect U.S. workers and businesses and safeguard our national security and higher education systems without unnecessarily targeting or harassing Chinese students with valid visas authorizing them to live and study here,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), CAPAC chair, said in a statement to The Hill.
“For every qualified foreign student, including every qualified Chinese graduate student, that doesn’t enroll in our higher education institutions, our nation loses out on their innovation and economic productivity and campuses lose out on their tuition and student life contributions,” Chu added.
The CAPAC also argues that Republicans are “reviving racially motivated rhetoric against Chinese Americans.”
“While it is crucial that we protect our national security and intellectual property, codified discrimination is not the answer. At a time when anti-Asian hate and violence is still rampant across the country, we must do everything we can to prevent programs like this — founded in racism and xenophobia — from happening again,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), CAPAC executive board member.
Chinese migrants are the fastest growing group crossing into U.S. from Mexico
Sharyn Alfonsi Sun, February 4, 2024
The number of migrants arriving at the southern border is unprecedented. Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded two-and-a-half million instances of detaining or turning away people attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico.
So what's the fastest growing group among them? Chinese migrants. Yes, you heard that right…Chinese. We saw large groups, including many from the middle class, come through a 4-foot gap at the end of a border fence 60 miles east of San Diego.
The illegal entryway is a new route for those hoping to live in America.
Just after sunrise, we saw the first group of migrants make their way from Mexico…through a gap between the 30 foot steel border fence and rocks.
Ducking under a bit of razor wire and into the United States.
We were surprised to see the number of people coming through from China...nearly 7,000 miles away.
Our cameras, and at one point this armed Border Patrol agent standing 25 feet away…. did not deter them. / Credit: 60 Minutes
This man, a college graduate, told us he hoped to find work in Los angeles. He said his trip from China took 40 days.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What countries did you go through?
College grad: Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador … Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica …Nicaragua.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Jeez.
Thirty minutes later, a smuggler's SUV raced along the border fence and dropped another group at the same spot. And 30 minutes after that…. another group.
Over four days, we witnessed nearly 600 migrants – adults and children- pass through this hole and onto U.S. soil…unchecked. We saw people from India, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Many of the Chinese migrants who came through will end up asking for political asylum.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you travel by yourself or with family or friends?
Migrant no. 2: Eh No. Just me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Just you.
Migrant no. 2: Yeah.
The gap is a global destination…littered with travel documents from around the world. Travel documents from around the world have been left on the ground at the border gap. / Credit: 60 Minutes
With the help of a translator, we learned a little about the Chinese migrants coming through.
We also met a banker and small business owners.
Some of the migrants made a grueling journey through Central America with dusty backpacks…but we noticed middle class migrants from China arriving with rolling bags. They told us they took flights all the way to Mexico.
Some flew from China to Ecuador, because it doesn't require a visa for Chinese nationals. Then, took flights to Tijuana, Mexico.
The migrants told us they connected with smugglers, or what they call snake heads, in Tijuana.
And they each paid them about $400 for the hour-long drive that ended here…at the gap…
Sharyn Alfonsi: Why did you decide to come to the United States?
Female migrant/Translator speaking English: Oh, it's hard to live there … hard to find jobs.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What did you do? Did you work in China?
Female migrant/Translator speaking English: She worked in the factory but now it's hard to work in the factory.
She said it was…and that she sold her house to cover the $14,000 cost of her trip to the U.S. / Credit: 60 Minutes
Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 37,000 Chinese citizens were apprehended crossing illegally from Mexico into the U.S.…that's 50 times more than two years earlier.
Many of the migrants told us they made the journey to escape China's increasingly repressive political climate and sluggish economy.
This 37-year-old woman said China's COVID lockdown destroyed her child care business. She left her two young children with family at home.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And why did you decide to come to the United States?
37-year-old female migrant/translator speaking English: Many reasons.
Sharyn Alfonsi: For work or?
37-year-old female migrant/translator speaking English: Not … not entirely.
We wondered how all of these migrants…knew about this particular entryway into California.
The answer was in their hands.
Translator: TikTok, TikTok.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh you learned on TikTok.
TikTok is a social media platform created in China. The posts we found had step-by-step instructions for hiring smugglers and detailed directions to that hole we visited.
We were struck by just how orderly and routine it all seemed. The migrants walked about a half mile down a dirt road and waited in line for U.S. Border Patrol to arrive so they could surrender.
The land they are waiting on is owned by 75-year-old Jerry Shuster, a retiree.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The whole world seems to know there's a way in. And it's on your property. Jerry Shuster and Sharyn Alfonsi / Credit: 60 Minutes
Jerry Shuster: They're all doing this. They're all doing this. when they come over here, they come with the suitcases. They come prepared with the computers just like they got off on a Norwegian cruise ship yesterday.
Shuster owns 17 acres…just north of the border fence and a quarter mile outside of Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Population 540.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You're an immigrant yourself.
Jerry Shuster: Yes.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Where did you come from?
Jerry Shuster: I come from Yugoslavia. And I left Yugoslavia, I went to Austria. I stayed there eight month. And I knock on this door. I didn't bust the door down to come over here.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You came through the front door.
Jerry Shuster: I came through the front door.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And what do you think about this?
Jerry Shuster: They-- they don't care. They-- they-- they-- they come through the hole like they're comin' to their own country over here. And nobody do nothin' about it.
Shuster says it all started in May. He went to investigate some smoke coming from his property and found migrants burning trees to stay warm.
Today, his property looks like a messy moonscape…littered with the trash and tents migrants have left behind. Tents have been left behind on Jerry Shuster's property / Credit: 60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you ever just yelled, "Get outta here?"
Jerry Shuster: Well, they say—I uh - it was, like, four month ago, there was eight guys start-- knocking my trees and start burning my-- my-- my trees on the other side. So I told 'em, "Please, don't do that. Please don't do--" and they start surrounding me. I went home, and I got my gun, and I shoot in the air. They arrest me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: They arrested you?
Jerry Shuster: Yeah, they arrest me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: On your property?
Jerry Shuster: Yeah, on my property. Yeah, just because. I ask 'em not to burn the trees, not to knock the fences. And they-- they arrested me. They put me in a police car. I'm just protecting my own land.
Shuster wasn't charged – but his gun was confiscated.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If you had to guess, how many migrants do you think you've seen come through here?
Jerry Shuster: Maybe 3,000—a week.
Sharyn Alfonsi: 3,000 a week?
Jerry Shuster: I would say that, yes. Because this is ongoing deal.
About two hours after these migrants arrived, we saw the Border Patrol pull up, broadcasting recorded instructions in Mandarin.
The migrants were driven to a detention facility near San Diego…where they are given background checks. Some are interviewed. Typically - within 72 hours – they are released into the United States and can begin the process of filing an asylum claim.
Jacqueline Arellano has volunteered on the border for eight years offering humanitarian aid to migrants.
Jacqueline Arellano: So I'm a-- native Spanish speaker. I have been able to rely on being bilingual in doing this work for the duration that I have been doing it. And in this past year, I mean, there's been times that I've come to the sites and not spoken to a single Spanish speaker.
She relies on translation apps to communicate with Chinese migrants.
Sharyn Alfonsi: These people want to be picked up by border patrol. Why isn't this happening at a port of entry?
Jacqueline Arellano: That would definitely be the ideal situation. And people would much prefer to do so. It would definitely be much safer and more efficient. Unfortunately, there are barriers to people being able to seek asylum at a port of entry.
One barrier is the phone app called "CBP One".
Asylum seekers are supposed to use the app to make an appointment to enter the U.S. through a legal border crossing...
Volunteers who work with migrants told us there is still a three to four month wait to secure an appointment at a border crossing.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So is this a shortcut?
Jacqueline Arellano: It's really, like, the only one that they have. I don't even know that they would consider it a shortcut.
For years, millions of Chinese entered the U.S. with a visa that allowed them to visit, work or study. But in the last few years, those visas have been increasingly difficult to secure as tensions between the two countries have grown.
In 2016, the U.S. granted 2.2 million temporary visas to Chinese nationals. In 2022, it was just 160,000.
Tammy Lin is an immigration attorney and has worked with clients from China for nearly two decades.
Sharyn Alfonsi: if someone's not granted asylum here, will China then say, "Okay, yes, we'll take them back"?
Tammy Lin: I haven't seen that happen, really. I-- I think-- even back to 2008-- a lot of the Chinese nationals that had failed asylum cases weren't able to get passports-- to be put on the plane to be sent back. So we can't send you back.
Based on our review of data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement – there are at least 36,000 Chinese who have been ordered by U.S. courts to leave the country. But China is notorious for not taking back its citizens and the U.S. can't force China to accept them.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So, then, what happens if they have a failed claim but they can't go back to China?
Tammy Lin: That's a very good question. They're stuck in this limbo.
According to the Department of Justice, last year 55% of Chinese migrants were granted asylum. compared to 14% for every other nationality.
With the odds in their favor, and a phone to guide them, there's little to discourage more Chinese migrants from coming through the gap near Jerry Shuster's place.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you said to anybody, "Hey, there's this giant hole. They're comin' through. How 'bout patching that up?"
Jerry Shuster: They know that thing is there. And-- we-- we all been tellin' 'em, "Hey, when this thing gonna quit over here? you gotta call Washington D.C." That's what they say.
So, we did. U.S. Customs and Border Protection told us their agents don't have authority to stop people from coming through gaps like this one and can only arrest them after they've entered illegally.
As for closing that gap, they said it is on their priority list. But would require money from Congress.
Produced by Guy Campanile. Associate Producer, Lucy Hatcher. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Craig Crawford.
Chinese migrants are flocking to the southern border, and some have Chinese TikTok guides on how to enter the US: CBS
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan Sun, February 4, 2024
Chinese migrants hoping to get into the US are turning to an unlikely guide — the Chinese version of Tiktok.
Migrants told 60 Minutes they planned their journey using Douyin.
There has been a surge in the number of Chinese migrants crossing the US border in recent years.
Some Chinese migrants attempting to cross the US southern border are getting a little help from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, according to a report from CBS' "60 Minutes."
Over four days, CBS journalists observed nearly 600 migrants, some of whom were Chinese, crossing the border through a gap at the end of a border fence near San Diego.
Chinese migrants who spoke to 60 Minutes said they learned about the gap via the video application Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
60 Minutes said it had reviewed several Douyin posts, which gave detailed instructions on how migrants could hire smugglers to get to the border.
And the journey is no walk in the park either.
Chinese migrants hoping to start a new life in the US have to trek through multiple countries before they arrive stateside. Some have had to crisscross through Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and then Mexico, per CNN.
There has been a surge in the number of Chinese migrants entering the US through its borders.
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, the number of encounters the agency has had with Chinese nationals at the Southwest land border has increased more than 50-fold, from 450 people in 2021 to 24,314 in 2023.
Chinese social media platforms have been a boon for migrants hoping to enter the US.
In April, Reuters interviewed more than two dozen Chinese migrants entering the US via southeastern Texas. All the migrants that Reuters spoke to said that social media had helped them to plan their journey.
It's not just China. Content creators from Venezuela and India have been producing similar videos as well.
"Migration sells. My public is a public that wants a dream," Venezuelan Manuel Monterrosa, 35, told The New York Times in a story published in December.
Representatives for the US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
How climate change contributes to wildfires like Chile's
ED DAVEY Updated Mon, February 5, 2024
Chile Forest Fires Extreme Conditions Residents evacuate on a motorcycle amid wildfires into Vina del Mar, Chile, Feb. 3, 2024. Scientists say climate change creates conditions that make the drought and wildfires now hitting South America more likely.
(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
At least 123 people have been killed by wildfires in central Chile, leading its president to declare two days of national mourning. The devastation comes soon after Colombia declared a disaster over wildfires. Scientists say climate change makes the heat waves and drought now hitting South America more likely — and both contribute to wildfires by drying out the plants that feed the blazes.
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CHILE?
The fires in Chile came amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures in the capital city of Santiago to about 37 degrees Celsius (nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Extreme heat bakes moisture from wood, turning it into ideal fuel. Fires take hold more rapidly, and also burn with more intensity. Just a few extra degrees can be a tipping point that makes the difference between a mild fire season and a severe one.
Edward Mitchard, a forests expert at the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences in Scotland, said climate change “makes the world hotter, which means that plants evaporate more water through them and soils get drier.”
It only takes a few days of very dry, hot weather for leaves to feel crisp and dry, he said. “That’s fuel that burns very well," he said, adding: “Drier soil means fires are hotter and last longer.”
A Nature study showed that fire seasons are an average of 18.7% longer in length due to climate change. That means an increased window for disastrous fires to start.
WHAT ROLE DO GLOBAL WEATHER CYCLES PLAY?
The increased number of droughts as global rain cycles are interrupted means whole regions can be left unusually parched and more vulnerable to ignition.
“Climate change has made droughts more common,” said Mitchard. “And that’s especially happened in South America this year.
"We’ve had the most extreme drought ever recorded in the Amazon basin, and if you have droughts in the Amazon basin, you also get less rainfall in the south of South America.”
In Chile’s case, some unusually heavy rains last year are thought to have increased the growth of brush that makes perfect kindling for fires.
On top of this has come the El Niño weather pattern, the natural and periodic warming of surface waters in the Pacific that affects weather around the globe. In South America, it's meant increased temperatures and drought this year.
Climate change makes stronger El Niños more likely, said Mitchard, and droughts caused by it are likelier to be more intense. Last month, Colombia’s government declared a disaster over dozens of wildfires associated with the weather phenomenon.
And the huge amount of carbon released by forest fires itself increases global warming.
ARE FOREST FIRES GETTING WORSE?
The World Resources Institute used satellite data to calculate that wildfires now destroy about 11,500 square miles of forest annually (30,000 square kilometers), an area about the size of Belgium and about twice as much as 20 years ago.
And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that globally, extreme heat waves happen five times more often because of human-caused global warming. Fire seasons are thus drier with higher temperatures. These are ideal conditions for forest fires to take hold.
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Ilhan Omar speech proved to be mistranslated but outrage continues spread
Faisal Ali
THE GUARDIAN Mon, February 5, 2024 Representative Ilhan Omar speaks at the Capitol in Washington DC on 25 January 2023.
Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
A week after a mistranslated clip of Ilhan Omar sparked outrage online, some far-right House Republicans are still following through with calls for the progressive lawmaker to be censured. And the repercussions of the misinformation extend beyond the country.
The Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has gone furthest in her response to the clip, calling Omar a “foreign agent in our government”. Greene, a leading supporter of Donald Trump, who also attempted to censure the Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib in November, called Omar a “terrorist sympathizer” on X last week, adding: “Somalian first. Muslim second. She never mentions America.”
Greene said she would introduce a censure bill which could see the Minnesota Democrat removed from the remaining committees she serves, a year after Omar was forced out of the foreign affairs committee by Republicans for her criticism of Israel. The bill was on the House agenda Monday, though it is unlikely to move past political stunt.
Omar, a Somali American congresswoman, had been filmed delivering a speech at a hotel in Minneapolis on 27 January where she addressed members of her constituency on a recent agreement reached between the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland and Ethiopia in early January, which bypassed Somalia’s federal government in Mogadishu.
The preliminary deal, termed a memorandum of understanding, would see Somaliland lease Ethiopia a naval base on the Gulf of Aden and grant it widened access to its Berbera port. In exchange, Somaliland officials claim, Ethiopia would become the first country to recognise its independence unilaterally from Somalia.
In an interview with the Observer, an adviser to Somalia’s president warned that Somalia was ready for war with Ethiopia if it doesn’t reverse course on the deal.
A video of the speech was circulated soon after on X by Rhoda Elmi, Somaliland’s deputy foreign minister. The video’s translation wrongly claimed Omar had said she was “Somalian first and Muslim second”.
Mocking the faulty translation, Omar pointed out that the demonym for someone from Somalia is Somali, not Somalian. “If you are gonna talk about us, at least try to get our ethnicity right,” she posted on X.
The video, which has been viewed at least 4.5m times, also misquoted Omar as saying she would “liberate” Somali territories, which were “occupied” by neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, a polarising issue among Somalis, some of whom weren’t satisfied with the post-colonial settlement when the Horn of Africa was partitioned by Italy, France and the UK.
Elmi, Somaliland’s deputy foreign minister, took umbrage at the Minnesota lawmaker’s purported remarks about her position on the memorandum and Somalia’s relations with its neighbours, accusing her of “ethno-racist rhetoric”.
Omar defended her comments in the days that followed, saying the subtitles in the video were “not only slanted but completely off”, expressing her support for the government of Somalia, where she was born, as it finds itself embroiled in standoff with Ethiopia.
Omar vowed to thwart the deal, which the US has also expressed concerns over, telling people at the gathering in Minneapolis: “For as long as I am in Congress, no one will take over the seas belonging to the nation of Somalia and the United States will not support others who seek to steal from us.”
Several Somalis also posted on X about the errors in the subtitles, including the translator and author Aziz Mahdi, who objected to Omar’s remarks but said: “The translation offered fails to accurately convey the essence of her talk, leading to a distorted understanding of her message. So don’t cite it.”
The Minnesota Reformer, a Minnesota-based news outlet, worked with two independent Somali translators who recorded Omar as saying: “We are people who know that they are Somali and Muslim”, not that she was “Somalians first” as the video suggested.
Abdirashid Hashi, a former Somali government minister, called on Elmi to retract the video and issue an apology.
Despite attempts to clarify Omar’s message, several Republicans and rightwing figures seized upon the video without verifying the misleading translation, to launch a fresh attack on Omar, including Elon Musk, whose own ties with third countries were questioned by Joe Biden. On his X account, Musk posted: “The United States or another country. Pick one.”
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, called for Omar’s denaturalization and deportation, while Tom Emmer, the House majority whip, decried her comments as a “slap in the face” to her constituents and called for an ethics investigation into her remarks.
The Greene censure bill could be a further thorn in the congresswoman’s side, but Omar shrugged it off on Thursday. “I truly do not care about what that insane woman does,” she said, according to Politico.
And her party is standing behind her. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, criticised the move as a “frivolous censure resolution, designed to inflame and castigate and further divide us”.
McGovern slams Greene for going after Mayorkas, Omar: ‘The clowns are running the circus’
Miranda Nazzaro
THE HILL Mon, February 5, 2024 Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) on Monday called Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) the “leader” of a “charade” over her efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
“The clowns are running the circus around here,” McGovern, the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, said during a committee hearing Monday. “And we’re wasting hours of time this week on Marjorie Taylor Greene because what? She wants to impeach somebody? And don’t even get me started on her absurd censure resolution of Congresswoman Omar that she introduced because she doesn’t know how to use Google Translate.”
McGovern was speaking during a committee hearing on H.R. Res 863, a resolution introduced by Greene last year to impeach Mayorkas “for high crimes and misdemeanors,” including an alleged failure to secure the border and detain all illegal migrants.
She called off the vote for this resolution in November after she said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) assured her the House would push forward with proceedings against Mayorkas. The House Homeland Security Committee advanced the resolution last week.
McGovern on Monday contended House lawmakers could be debating and voting on a border security package, but they cannot because Greene “is in charge, and Speaker Johnson is terrified of her and her MAGA extremist friends.”
Greene’s “legislative agenda is revenge, retaliation and impeachment. She’s introduced — get this — 20 pieces of legislation this Congress … 20. And 10 of them are to impeach or censure people she doesn’t like,” McGovern said.
“And to see this committee, this institution be so totally perverted by this garbage makes me sad,” he added later.
Greene last week said she “absolutely” deserves credit for House Republicans pushing forward with impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas after she moved to force votes on his impeachment last year.
The Georgia Republican is separately spearheading an attempt to censure Omar following a disputed translation of comments the Minnesota representative made about Somalia and Somalians. Greene accused Omar of being a “foreign agent” and called her censure legislation to the floor last week as a privileged resolution. This procedural gambit forces leadership to hold a vote within two legislative days.
This censure attempt comes just months after she introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) over her comments condemning Israel for its response to Hamas and the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A separate censure resolution of Tlaib was sponsored by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) around the same time and eventually approved by the House.
Earlier in the meeting, McGovern hypothetically asked if Greene is in House leadership amid her various efforts and touched upon some of the lawmaker’s past controversies.
“Is she now the majority leader? Marjorie Taylor Greene? Someone who probably speaks at white supremacist rallies, someone who promotes Holocaust deniers, someone who compares Joe Biden to Adolf Hitler and who says COVID mask requirements are the same thing as Nazi gas chambers? Someone who says wildfires are caused by Jewish space lasers and that 9/11 was an inside job?” McGovern said. “That’s the person that you put in charge of this whole Republican agenda right now?”
Greene responded to McGovern’s criticism on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and wrote, “Wow this is coming from the same guy who is well known to lay his suit jacket on the actual bathroom floor while spending a lot of time in the stall of the first floor bathroom of the Capitol.”
“Eww. That’s probably when he comes up with all this [poop emoji],” she added.
McGovern quipped back on X, writing, “No idea what you’re talking about…what are you doing in the men’s bathroom aren’t you late for a klan meeting?”
Biden thanks hospitality workers in Las Vegas ahead of Nevada's Tuesday primary
DARLENE SUPERVILLE Updated Mon, February 5, 2024 President Joe Biden meets with members of the Culinary Workers Union at Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024.
(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday congratulated hospitality workers for reaching a tentative agreement with several Las Vegas hotel-casinos and calling off a strike deadline for another, telling members of the local culinary union, “When you do well, everybody does better.”
"I came to say thank you — not just thank you for the support you’ve given me the last time out and this time, but thank you for having the faith in the union," Biden, who is running for reelection in November to a second term, told Local 226 Culinary hospitality workers who gathered at Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas. “Thank you for continuing to push it because this really matters. It matters, it matters, it matters.”
The president has been in Las Vegas since Sunday for campaign appearances ahead of the state's Democratic primary on Tuesday. He visited with the union members on Monday and later visited a boba tea shop before flying back to Washington.
The Culinary Workers Union, which represents hospitality workers, says it has reached a tentative agreement with six more downtown hotel-casinos and called off a strike deadline for another.
The Culinary Union is the largest in Nevada with about 60,000 members statewide. It negotiates on behalf of its members for five-year contracts.
Biden recently was endorsed by the United Auto Workers union. He proudly touts his longstanding support for the men and women of organized labor.
“I make no apologies for being the most pro-union president in America,” he said Sunday night at a reelection campaign rally in a historically Black neighborhood in Las Vegas.
The culinary union's tentative agreements averted a Monday morning walkout threat at several near-Strip and downtown properties as the city kicks off Super Bowl week. The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will face off at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday.
After negotiations with some of the remaining casinos hit a snag, the union announced last week it would go on strike if tentative contracts weren’t in place by early Monday for downtown casino workers at properties that hadn’t reached agreements.
The NFL’s 58th Super Bowl is expected to bring 330,000 people to Las Vegas this week, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Biden meets with union workers in Las Vegas
Brett Samuels Mon, February 5, 2024
President Biden on Monday met with union workers in Las Vegas, seeking to bolster his support with a key constituency on the eve of the state’s primary and ahead of the general election.
Biden spoke to members of the Culinary Workers Union at the Vdara Hotel, shaking hands and taking photos. His visit came after the union, which represents hospitality workers in Las Vegas, reached an agreement with several hotel-casinos in the city to avert a potential walkout.
“Wall Street did not build America. The middle class built America. Unions built the middle class. There would be no middle class without the unions,” Biden said in remarks to the workers.
“So I came to say thank you,” he added. “Not just to say thank you for the support that you’ve given me last time out, but to thank you for having the faith in the union.”
Biden’s meeting with culinary union members echoed a similar stop he made in Michigan to speak with members of the United Auto Workers members last week. Both are a nod to the importance of unions for Biden in building a coalition to carry swing states like Nevada and Michigan in the general election.
Biden, who often refers to himself as the most pro-union president in history, won the vote among union members in the 2020 election by 14 percentage points over former President Trump.
Biden stopped in Nevada on Sunday and Monday ahead of the state’s Democratic primary contest on Tuesday. Marianne Williamson is the lone primary challenger who will be on the ballot with Biden after Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) missed the filing deadline.
The president is expected to win easily, just as he did Saturday in South Carolina with 96 percent of the vote.
Biden might join Las Vegas hotel workers on picket line, union chief says
Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt Sun, February 4, 2024 U.S. President Joe Biden visits Los Angeles
By Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -President Joe Biden might join Las Vegas hotel employees on a picket line if they go on strike Monday, a move that would bind him closely with another group of workers in a 2024 election battleground state, the union's chief told Reuters.
Workers with the politically influential Nevada Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino have until early Monday to reach an agreement.
Failure to do so could mean the workers start a strike.
Biden has committed to joining striking workers if they walk out, Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer and head of the union, told Reuters in an interview. Biden will be in Las Vegas on Monday, capping two days of political events.
Asked whether Biden will join workers on Monday if they strike, Pappageorge said "there will be opportunities" for Biden to rally with workers, and that Biden was invited to join the picket line.
Company and union negotiators were headed back to the table Sunday evening ahead of a Monday morning deadline for a deal.
The Culinary Union has already reached more than 30 agreements that cover 50,000 workers with other Vegas hotel and casino properties.
Biden's campaign declined to comment. The campaign and the White House have not yet provided any schedule for Biden on Monday.
If Biden joins the picket line, it would be his second such step in recent months after he joined striking autoworkers in Michigan last September. That was the first visit by a U.S. president to striking workers in recent memory and came ahead of an endorsement by the United Auto Workers last month.
Just last week, Trump met with the leadership and some members of the 1.3-million member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of America's biggest unions, in a bid for the support of labor groups.
The arid Western state of Nevada, where Biden is expected to easily win a Democratic Party primary on Tuesday, is one of seven identified by Biden's campaign as a closely contested battleground in November's general election. Voter support in such states could swing to either party.
In 2020, Biden narrowly beat his Republican rival Donald Trump in Nevada by 33,596 votes, or less than 3%, and opinion polls show a rematch between the two men this year, which seems likely, would be close.
About 30% of Nevada's population is self-described as Latino or Hispanic on the U.S. Census, and Republicans are making some inroads with these voters nationwide.
Biden calls himself the most pro-union president in history and has taken many pro-labor actions. The AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for worker groups including the Culinary Union, endorsed Biden last year.
The Downtown Grand, which is owned by the investment company CIM Group and operated by Fifth Street Gaming, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
The Industry ‘Scandal’ That Might Completely Upend How America Builds Houses
Alexander C. Kaufman Mon, February 5, 2024 In this March 16, 2021 file photo, a carpenter aligns a beam for a wall frame at a new house site in Madison County, Mississippi.
Fossil fuel companies are trying to strip a series of climate-friendly measures out of the latest round of model building codes used to regulate construction virtually everywhere in the United States.
The International Code Council, the nonprofit organization responsible for writing widely adopted model building codes, broke its own rules to allow natural gas trade associations make the industry’s case for scrapping provisions for electric appliances and car chargers from the latest update to the codebook, HuffPost has learned.
Long accused of inappropriately chummy ties with the industries its rules regulate, the ICC late last year abruptly changed its own written policies to give the gas groups twice as much time to file appeals against codes they don’t like, and to skip a key bureaucratic step meant to provide oversight to avoid frivolous challenges, according to public documents and interviews with four sources with direct knowledge of the process.
The legitimacy of the entire building code system — already eroding, after recent changes to the process dampened hopes for more ambitious, greener codes — may now be at stake. Some experts involved in writing the latest codes say they may abandon the process altogether, in favor of forging a new national model that can more easily slash energy usage and cut back on planet-heating emissions.
The ICC had put a new approval process in place for energy codes in 2021, after industry groups balked at the most climate-friendly code in years. This new system put trade associations representing fossil fuel interests and real estate developers on equal footing with public officials from elected governments. Now, to advocates of stricter codes, it looks like the industry players are rigging the code-writing process even more.
“It’s a scandal,” said Mike Waite, the director of codes at watchdog American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and a volunteer who helped author this year’s commercial building codes.
“The ICC’s policies are crystal clear. They wrote them. Now they are violating them,” Waite said. “They think they can do anything and get away with it. And we know exactly who it’s benefiting.”
On Monday morning, ACEEE, the Natural Resources Defense Council and four other major energy-efficiency advocacy groups sent a letter to the ICC’s chief executive, Dominic Sims, urging him to cancel all upcoming hearings before the ICC appeals board. Groups like the American Gas Association and the American Public Gas Association planned to ask the ICC at those hearings to gut measures that make switching to electric appliances cheaper and easier for homeowners.
In a lengthy statement to HuffPost, the AGA said the rule changes would correct what gas companies saw as an imbalanced process during which, in the eyes of the utility trade group, the ICC violated its own rules to accommodate advocates of stricter codes.
The ICC defended changing its rules to allow for the gas industry’s challenge, but touted the energy-efficiency gains in its latest codebook and said it was wrong to assume the appeals board would rule on behalf of the fossil fuel companies.
Heating Up
In 2021, the United States spewed an average of nearly 17.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each day. Try to picture where all that pollution comes from, and you’ll likely think of smoke stacks on a power plant, exhaust from the tailpipes of idled cars in traffic and oil rigs burning excess gas like candles on the Texas plain.
Add the ranch house with the white-picket fence to that list.
Modern row houses in suburbs of Delaware seen from elevated view.
Modern row houses in suburbs of Delaware seen from elevated view.
Between the fossil fuels they burn directly and the electricity they require, buildings are tied with heavy industry as the biggest source of greenhouse gasses in the U.S.
For cities and towns across the country, this is a crisis. While many municipalities have adopted local laws mandating they zero out their emissions in the coming years, the rules to regulate the automobiles and power stations that generate much of the nation’s pollution fall under federal or state control. One thing local governments do have jurisdiction over, however, is how buildings are constructed.
Rules for building codes vary by state. In Colorado, for example, municipalities make their own decisions. In Illinois, statewide adoption of the latest and greenest codes is mandatory. In Idaho, towns are barred from going too far beyond the state’s standards, which are among the weakest in the nation. Almost half of the U.S. is now following the Gem State’s lead in passing statewide laws that make it illegal for any town or county to bar new buildings from using natural gas.
All but a handful of big states with the capacity to write complex construction codes, such as California, use model codes designed and updated every three years by the ICC, a nonprofit consortium made up of local government officials, industry groups and environmentalists. But until recently, only the government officials could vote on the final codes, granting the process democratic legitimacy and curbing how much power energy and construction groups had over their own regulations.
When the ICC convened its members in 2019 to begin working on the codes that came out in 2021, local government officials turned out to vote in larger numbers than ever and organized themselves to cast ballots in favor of the most ambitious codes in decades. With their votes, the ICC approved codes that were as much as 14 times more efficient than the previous code.
Outraged over rules they said would eat into profits and raise the cost of already-unaffordable housing, industry groups tried to overturn that vote. Gas utilities managed to get some of the most climate-friendly measures, like requiring new homes to include the wiring for electric appliances and car chargers, struck from the code. For the most part, however, the new, more stringent code held.
The ICC’s electoral process did not. Despite objections from local governments, environmentalists and even the newly-inaugurated Biden administration, the ICC eliminated its existing vote structure altogether.
Local governments would still get final say on most other codes, like those dictating swimming pools and plumbing. But energy-related codes would instead go to two “consensus” committees — one for residential, one for commercial — where industry groups and governments would need to compromise over the thickness of insulation and the wiring in buildings.
New System, New Problems
Problems quickly arose when the committees first met in early 2022 to start writing the code scheduled to go out in 2024. A secret email from a gas utility executive pressured a consensus committee chair to ax a proposal to require new buildings to be wired for electric vehicle chargers, even before the proposal came up for a vote, as HuffPost reported at the time.
Finding rules that engineers, gas utilities, home-builders, local governments and energy-efficiency advocates could all agree to under this new system proved challenging. ICC committee members serve as volunteers, and they now had to spend far more time debating and bargaining over code proposals than in previous years. For workers with local governments or a small firms, that kind of unpaid work could be difficult to carve out time for. Lobbyists working for trade groups did not have the same problem.
Flames can be seen on a gas stove.
Flames can be seen on a gas stove.
When the residential committee first met, it was clear there were already warring factions. But as the volunteers started sorting through hundreds of code proposals in 2022, many passed within preliminary vote by simple majorities. It wasn’t until June that the ICC made clear that would-be codes would need to be approved by two-thirds of committee members in order to move on to the next phase.
It seemed impossible to pass anything. But Gayathri Vijayakumar saw an opening.
The principal mechanical engineer at a firm specializing in sustainable construction, Vijayakumar felt she could serve as the residential committee’s neutral negotiator, with the credibility to talk to both government workers who wanted stricter codes and industry groups concerned about how much it would cost.
“I’d been working already with folks with different viewpoints and I felt I had been able to understand both sides of arguments,” she said. “I was convinced that there was middle ground to be found on some of these contentious proposals.”
She began hosting forums in summer 2022 to figure out where the two sides could find compromise. When the committee formally came together for another preliminary vote of members present during the meeting on the compromise proposals in September that year, 32 members voted yes, eight voted no. When official electronic balloting took place soon after, the vote came in at 38 to 9.
The very existence of these forums constituted what the AGA called “irregular committee proceedings” that “limited transparency to the public, hindered opportunities for public comment on multiple occasions, and violated ICC procedures.”
“This resulted in proposals that would not have been considered for inclusion in the body of the code, being included as a requirement for code compliance,” Michael Murray, the gas group’s general counsel, wrote in an email to HuffPost. “Additionally, the balance of power between disparate interest groups was neither maintained nor transparent.”
In fall 2023, the ICC met and scheduled a final committee vote for November. The ICC’s rules allowed for 30 days to appeal. Despite reservations about the new process, groups like the ACEEE, which had wanted the next batch of codes to go further, still accepted the results of the process.
Then, just days before the window to object to the codes closed, the ICC abruptly pushed the deadline back by 30 days. No industry groups had filed any appeals before the original deadline. But a week later, appeals came in from the American Gas Association and the American Public Gas Association, which represent utilities; the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, whose members include manufacturers that make gas-fueled equipment; and two housing industry associations.
Four local officials from New England and New York also filed an appeal claiming that the compromises that came out of Vijayakumar’s forums were reached in a way that’s “completely contrary” to how the committee was supposed to function. But the officials said the “ambiguity” in the ICC’s own internal policies “sets the stage to allow rules to be misconstrued and applied inconsistent with those procedures.”
“We have observed concerning discrepancies in the code development process, raising doubts about the legitimacy of the consensus approach,” they wrote in a letter appealing the energy codes to the ICC.
I find it deeply irresponsible of an organization that develops rules and whose members enforce them to essentially say: ‘Rules are made to be broken.’Mike Waite, ACEEE
The ICC said its internal announcements about when the period for appealing proposals “caused confusion for multiple parties.” So the ICC’s board of directors “chose to extend the deadline” for appeals “out of an abundance of caution.”
Russ Manning, the ICC’s senior vice president of technical services, said the extension was “consistent with the principles of due process that the Code Council prioritizes” and with its own internal rules.
“I find it deeply irresponsible of an organization that develops rules and whose members enforce them to essentially say: ‘Rules are made to be broken,’” Waite said when asked to comment on the ICC’s defense.
Yet even by accepting the appeals when it did, the ICC broke an internal rule. The ICC was supposed to run the appeals by the committees first to judge whether they merited hearings. Instead, the ICC simply scheduled the hearings without consulting the code authors at all.
The “clear” violations of the ICC’s own procedure mean the appeals should be tossed out without even holding a hearing, according to the environmental groups’ letter on Monday.
But Manning said the ICC “determined that sending the issues to the committees for further action would be unproductive, as it was unlikely to remove the appellants’ appeal and would unnecessarily extend the finalization of the 2024 versions of the codes.”
The appeals process was “in its beginning phases,” Manning said, insisting “there is no basis for concluding what the final” rulings will be. He pointed to an analysis by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that found the latest codes, as proposed, would raise energy efficiency by as much as 10%.
If the ICC actually grants the appeals, groups like ACEEE said they may begin looking at alternatives to the ICC to design codes and consider not participating in the next round.
Not everyone agrees it’s time for outrage just yet.
Duane Jonlin is head of the ICC’s energy committee and a codes official in Seattle widely considered to be among the nation’s most progressive. He said “it’s too early to be getting upset about appeals.”
“They’ll be ruled on,” he said. “Then we can talk.”
The appeals hearings are scheduled to take place over three days from Feb. 21 to 23. But the last day for anyone to register to attend or speak at the hearings is Monday.
