Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers

Agence France-Presse
October 5, 2024 

Houses in the village of Thame lie abandoned in the aftermath of a flood caused by a glacial lake outburst (Migma NURU SHERPA/AFP)

Mingma Rita Sherpa was not home when the muddy torrent roared into his village in Nepal without warning, but when he returned, he did not recognise his once beautiful settlement.

It took just moments for freezing floodwaters to engulf Thame in the foothills of Mount Everest, a disaster that climate change scientists say is an ominous sign of things to come in the Himalayan nation.

"There is no trace of our house... nothing is left," Sherpa said. "It took everything we owned.

Nepal is reeling from its worst flooding in decades after ferocious monsoon rains swelled rivers and inundated entire neighbourhoods in the capital Kathmandu, killing at least 236 people.

Last weekend's disaster was the latest of several disastrous floods to hit the country this year.

Thame was submerged in August by a glacial lake that burst high in the mountains above the small village, famous for its mountaineering residents.

It was once home to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb the world's highest mountain Everest, along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

"We are afraid to return, there are still lakes above," Sherpa said.

"The fertile land is gone. It is hard to see a future there," he added, speaking from the capital Kathmandu, where he has moved.

A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is the sudden release of water collected in former glacier beds.

These lakes are formed by the retreat of glaciers, with the warmer temperatures of human-caused climate change turbocharging the melting of the icy reservoirs.

Glacial lakes are often unstable because they are dammed by ice or loose debris.

- 'Rebuild or relocate' -

Thame was a popular stop during the trekking season, perched at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,470 feet) beneath soaring snow-capped peaks.

But in August, during the monsoon rains, the village was largely empty.

No one was killed, but the flood destroyed half of the village's 54 homes, a clinic and a hostel. It also wiped out a school started by Hillary.

Sherpa, like many in the village, ran a lodge for foreign trekkers. He also worked as a technician at a hydropower plant, a key source of electricity in the region. That too was damaged.

"Some are trying to rebuild, but the land is not stable," he said. "Parts continue to erode."

Thame's residents are scattered, some staying in neighboring villages, others in Kathmandu.

Local official Mingma Chiri Sherpa said the authorities were surveying the area to assess the risks.

"Our focus right now is to aid the survivors," he said. "We are working to help the residents rebuild or relocate".


- 'Predict and prepare' -

Experts say that the flood in Thame was part of a frightening pattern. Glaciers are receding at an alarming rate.

Hundreds of glacial lakes formed from glacial melt have appeared in recent decades.


In 2020, more than 2,000 were mapped across Nepal by experts from the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), with 21 identified as potentially dangerous.

Nepal has drained lakes in the past, and is planning to drain at least four more.

ICIMOD geologist Sudan Bikash Maharjan examined satellite images of the Thame flood, concluding it was a glacial lake outburst.


"We need to strengthen our monitoring... so that we can, at least to some extent, predict and prepare," he said.

"The risks are there... so our mountain communities must be made aware so they can be prepared".

Scientists warn of a two-stage impact.


Initially, melting glaciers trigger destructive floods. Eventually, the glaciers will dry up, bringing even greater threats.

Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges provide crucial water for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions.

Another 1.65 billion people depend on them in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below.

- 'Himalayas have changed' -

Former residents of Thame are raising funds, including Kami Rita Sherpa, who climbed Everest for a record 30th time this year.

Kami Rita Sherpa said the locale had long been a source of pride as a "village of mountaineers", but times had changed.

"The place has no future now", he said. "We are living at risk -- not just Thame, other villages downhill also need to be alert."

The veteran mountaineer said his beloved mountains were under threat.

"The Himalayas have changed," he said. "We have now not only seen the impact of climate change, but experienced its dangerous consequences too."

Mexico City’s new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing

By AFP
October 5, 2024

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum (L) with Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada at her swearing-in ceremony - Copyright AFP Yuri CORTEZ

Mexico City’s new left-wing mayor took office Saturday with a pledge to defend women’s rights, tackle water shortages and address gentrification in the capital, home to more than nine million people.

Clara Brugada, a member of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party, was elected in June to what is one of the country’s most important political posts.

“I’m a feminist who has always fought for full equality, and I want this capital to be in the vanguard of women’s rights,” the 61-year-old said in her inaugural speech.

“The safety of people and especially women will be our priority,” she said, promising to ensure more police, use intelligence to fight crime and address the root causes of insecurity.

To tackle water shortages that frequently afflict the city, Brugada said her administration would repair leaks and use rainwater to replenish the aquifer “so that no one lacks water.”

She pledged to prevent forced evictions and prioritize rental housing for young people with the option to buy.

“We all have to organize ourselves to curb gentrification in Mexico City,” said the mayor, who has a degree in economics.

Brugada previously served three terms as mayor of the densely populated Mexico City district of Iztapalapa, and the ruling party has touted the benefits of social projects she oversaw there.

“A public servant trained in community work, living in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, today assumes the leadership of this great city’s government,” she said.

Since 1997, when the capital’s mayor began to be elected by popular vote, the left has always held the post, which has become a stepping stone to the presidency.

Both Sheinbaum, the first woman to lead the Latin American nation, and her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are former Mexico City mayors.

Mexico’s new president promises to resume fight against climate change

TERESA DE MIGUEL
Fri, October 4, 2024 

FILE - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a media briefing from the National Palace in Mexico City, Oct. 2, 2024, the morning after her inauguration. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In her first days as Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum made a point of distancing herself from the fossil fuel reliance promoted by her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and vowed to resume an energy transition that he halted.

“We are going to boost renewable energies. The goal is that by 2030, they will have a 45% share (of total electricity production),” she said Tuesday in her first public speech in the capital’s Zocalo square, shortly after being sworn in as the country’s first woman president.

Specifics are still scant, but her speech marks a sharp departure from the energy policy of former President López Obrador, a fierce defender of fossil fuels who, among other things, spent more than $20 billion to build a new oil refinery and stopped the auctions that had allowed developers to build solar and wind farms in the country.


The president said in the coming days she will unveil an “ambitious energy transition program” aimed at “the reduction of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.”

Yet Sheinbaum has also promised to strengthen the nation's Federal Electricity Commission, which owns older plants that mainly burn fossil fuels, and state-owned oil company Pemex.

Even without specifics, experts and environmentalists said the change in rhetoric was notable.

“The terms ‘sustainability’ or ‘renewable energy’ really never appeared,” in López Obrador’s policies, said Rosanety Barrios, who worked for more than a decade at the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission. “He didn't use the term in any speech, in any document. And she has been using it all the time.”

During her campaign, Sheinbaum repeatedly promised to promote renewable energy to meet an increasing demand for electricity, due in part to rising temperatures from climate change. In a speech to Congress, also on Tuesday, with López Obrador sitting a few steps from her, the promises seemed more tangible.

The goal of reaching 45% clean electricity by 2030 is well above the 24% it represented last year, according to the Ministry of Energy. If achieved, Mexico would be back on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, which seeks to keep the global average temperature to no more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The energy policy promoted by López Obrador led Climate Action Tracker, an organization which evaluates the actions countries take to comply with the Paris Agreement, to downgrade Mexico’s rating to “critically insufficient.”

In her speech to Congress, the president also announced what would be the country’s first ever limit on oil production – 1.8 million barrels per day. All crude oil in Mexico is produced by Pemex, and that amount is approximately what the company produced in 2023 on an average day.

It is far less than the 2.6 million barrels per day López Obrador promised at the beginning of his term.

Sheinbaum recalled that more than a decade ago, a 2013 energy reform promoted by then President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed production of 3 million barrels per day. “That is environmentally impossible,” she said. “It is better to promote efficiency and renewable sources.”

At the same time, however, Sheinbaum has vowed to “strengthen Pemex” and she never criticized the building of the new Dos Bocas refinery, paying several visits to it with López Obrador.

Experts said Mexico would not be able to increase oil production using traditional methods, because its fields are getting tapped out.

“Mexico has ten years of oil left at its current rate of production, which is modest. Mexico is almost out of oil,” said Adrian Fernandez, who holds a PhD in environmental science from Imperial College London and directs the Mexico Climate Initiative, a think tank.

But Fernández nevertheless praised Sheinbaum's words “because it means she is not going to try to increase oil production.”

Mexico would have to invest significant money either in hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, or deepwater exploration to increase production beyond current levels, he said. Up until now, the country has rejected both of these.

Fernández also said Sheinbaum’s speech is “totally consistent with her experience and knowledge.” The president has a PhD in energy engineering and degrees in physics, and was part of the United Nations panel of experts on climate change that won the Nobel Prize in 2007.

This week, Sheinbaum saw firsthand the havoc that climate change is wreaking in Mexico. On Wednesday, on her first trip as the country’s leader, she visited Acapulco, in the southern state of Guerrero, to assess the damage caused by Hurricane John, which struck the coast first as a hurricane and then again as a tropical storm last week.

The storm left a trail of devastation while the city was still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Otis. The strengh of both hurricanes was turbocharged by rising ocean temperatures due to global warming.

But the big question is whether the new president will be able to achieve her goals within Mexico’s current legal framework. Before leaving office, López Obrador pushed through a constitutional reform that strongly favors the Federal Electricity Commission.

On one hand, Sheinbaum has supported that legal change and promised the state will keep control of 54% of electricity generation. On the other, she has said she will once again encourage private investment in renewable energy, something the prior government discouraged with rules that favored the state-owned CFE that are still in force.

“From my point of view, the biggest problem Claudia has is legal uncertainty,” Barrios said.

— The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

AI bubble or ‘revolution’? OpenAI’s big payday fuels debate


By AFP
October 4, 2024

Tech titans such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft have partnerships and product lines that afford opportunity to promote the adoption of generative artificial intelligence - Copyright AFP Cecilia SANCHEZ

Glenn CHAPMAN

Fear of missing out has rocketed the value of artificial intelligence companies, despite few signs as to when the technology will turn a profit, raising talk of AI overenthusiasm.

The mystery deepens when it comes to predicting which generative AI firms will prevail, according to analysts interviewed by AFP.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI secured $6.6 billion in a funding round that propelled its valuation to an eye-popping $157 billion, sparking new worries there is an AI bubble poised to burst.

“We are in the bubble where all the vendors are running around saying you have to deploy it as the latest digital transformation move,” independent tech analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of generative AI.

“I expect this ugly phase for the next two to three years, but then things should settle.”

To the critics, buyers don’t really understand the technology, and the market needed for it to thrive is not mature yet.

Enderle also contended that investors are pouring money into generative AI companies with the mistaken notion we are close to technology that has computers thinking the way humans do, called general artificial intelligence.

That “holy grail” won’t show up until 2030 at the earliest, he said.

– ‘Revolution’ is here –

Industry titans Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have thrown their weight behind the technology, entering into partnerships and pushing out products to accelerate adoption.

But the tech giants are spending big to provide sometimes flawed features that for now cost them more than they take in from users.

The huge investments in OpenAI shows that Big Tech is willing to sink “substantial cash into a company that’s dealing with significant operation losses,” Emarketer analyst Grace Harmon said of the OpenAI funding round.

There’s a “lingering fear of underinvesting in AI and losing out…even if investments are not guaranteed to provide returns,” she said.

Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, is one of Wall Street’s biggest believers in generative AI’s importance and compared ChatGPT’s emergence to an “iPhone moment” that will see one trillion dollars in spending during the next three years.

An “AI Revolution is not just at our doorstep, but is actively shaping the future of the tech world,” he said after OpenAI’s historic fund-raise.

Wall Street for now stands firmly with Ives and has sent the stock price of AI-chasing tech giants to record levels since ChatGPT burst on the scene in late 2022.

Nvidia, the AI-chip juggernaut, in June briefly became the world’s biggest company by market valuation amid the frenzy.

But according to media reports, OpenAI will lose $5 billion this year on sales of $3.7 billion.

The company told investors the pain will be short-lived and that revenue will rise exponentially, hitting a whopping $100 billion in 2029.

– More than poems? –

The question is whether people will pay for generative AI services such as Microsoft’s CoPilot that depends on OpenAI technology, said Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi, who pushed back against the idea of an AI bubble.

“Consumers are going to start going beyond the write-the-poem-for-me stuff,” Milanesi said.

“It will become part of our lives and we will depend on it, because we will be forced to.”

But for now, the generative AI business model is tough, since data center and computing power costs dwarf revenue, according to analysts.

Still, Milanesi doesn’t think the tech industry is getting carried away with generative AI.

“How this shakes out is the way to think about it, not so much the bubble bursting and everyone losing out,” Milanesi said.

“It’s a bit of a Darwin situation where the survival of the fittest is happening,” she said.

And while there is more excitement about generative AI than real proof of its success, the technology is moving exceptionally fast.

“Investors are not sure what the destination is, but everybody is jumping on the boat and they don’t want to be left behind,” Enderle said.

“That typically ends badly,” he said.

Op-Ed: The strange business of building the world’s first operational quantum computer


ByPaul Wallis

DIGITAL JOURNAL
October 5, 2024

IBM's quantum computer, London. — Image: © Tim Sandle

Australia, after years of research and development, is finally getting a real live solid quantum computer. The science is good. The business side is attracting a lot of dubious comments. This is far more than skin in the game. It’s a functional form of future computing science on the grand scale.

The billion-dollar investment will be located in Brisbane. It’s supposed to be a world first and is scheduled for completion in 2027.

It will be created by PsiQuantum, an American company.

Doubts include:

The practical functionality of the computer. What can we use it for? Never mind the hype. Practical applications are what this is all about.

The cost, as might be expected. Contract blowouts are not popular.

PsiQuantum says they’re a for-profit company, so that’s already another separate cost vs value issue.

Operational costs, including cryogenic cooling, components, and maintenance. One operation per year doesn’t yield a good ROI.

Energy costs are not publicly specified.

Computer specifications provided by PsiQuantum are considered to be vague or inadequate. These are opinions, but they are relevant.

Who gets access to PsiQuantum services is unclear.

Public funding issues.

If this sounds like a recipe for disaster, it’s not. Not quite. At this point, the doubts are reasonable but lack their own specifics. This is pretty ordinary, if not encouraging, in the tech sector. We have a billion-dollar controversy about something that doesn’t exist yet except as a basic idea.

This is fairly normal in Australia. We try to keep up with the vacuous indecision of other countries, and we’re getting pretty good at it.

All of the above obscures one major unavoidable issue. Quantum computing is more typically done in a lab. It’s nothing like mainstream science, let alone business tech. A baby quantum computing science needs to learn to walk.

We need at the absolute minimum:

A rock-solid fully costed and verified contract for construction, obligatory services, and support.

A functional map for testing and evaluation. This is proof of it doing what we need it to do.

System quality control for the duration of operations. We can’t simply take it for granted that any operational functions will be easy or simple.

Quantum computing has great potential. This could be an extremely valuable long-term asset. Coupled with AI, it could be far beyond any previous computing tech, not just faster.

So much for the sales pitch. I’d also like to point out that any disincentive to investment in quantum computing would be a major own goal for this tech, It’s not just PsiQuantum who’ll be affected if it screws up.

This project will be the face of quantum computing in the business, tech, and investment sectors. They’re still trying to get their heads around the basics of AI. They’re not necessarily inclined to invest in added tech that’s still in the bassinet.

PsiQuantum needs to look good and work well for the sake of future science.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD PEOPLE

Call for US government to better protect the elderly

By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published October 5, 2024

File photo: A therapy dog visiting an elderly man in a nursing home. — © Karen Graham

A researcher is pushing ahead for a new policy framework to help the aging population in the U.S. This includes providing additional state support and preventing societal abuse of older people.

The director of the Center for Gerontology and professor of human development and human science, Pamela Teaster has advocated for older adults and vulnerable populations, ensuring that they are protected from abuse by those around them, for more than 20 years.

In 2023 Teaster began a new aspect of this work as a part of the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship, a competitive year-long national programme based in Washington, D.C.

Fellows are selected each year through a national competition based on their commitment to health and aging issues, leadership potential, and interest in impacting policy. Teaster was chosen as a 2023-24 non-residential fellow — meaning she is not located in Washington, D.C. — and has been placed with the Administration for Community Living. Teaster will be working with the administration through September and will make occasional trips to the capital as needed.

Teaster’s work comes at a time when the population of U.S. citizens aged 65 and older is growing rapidly and the various abuses of the population are very high.

According to the National Council on Aging, up to 5 million older people are abused every year and the annual loss by victims of financial abuse is estimated to be at least $36.5 billion. Elder abuse includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; exploitation; neglect; and abandonment.

Teaster’s work in this area began in 1997. She has conducted extensive research on elder abuse and policy, authored seven books and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, reports, and book chapters while also playing a significant role in creating legislation for public guardianship programs in Virginia.

Teaster’s ongoing research focuses on several areas, including the mistreatment of older adults and vulnerable populations, end-of-life decision-making, public policy and affairs, ethical treatment, human rights issues, financial exploitation, and public and private guardianship.

Throughout the new fellowship, Teaster hopes to gain a deeper understanding of policies as they are applied to various contexts along with learning better methods to develop and implement programs and policies that are beneficial to elderly and vulnerable populations.

Factbox-Guns, transgender rights, porn, regulatory powers cases head to US Supreme Court

Reuters
Fri, October 4, 2024 

U.S. Supreme Court in Washington

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Monday to begin its new nine-month term that has cases on issues including guns, gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, online pornography, federal regulatory powers involving nuclear waste storage and vape products, and securities fraud litigation involving Nvidia and Facebook.

Here is a look at some of the cases the justices are due to decide.

'GHOST GUNS'

The issue of gun rights returns to the justices, who agreed to decide the legality of a U.S. regulation aimed at reining in homemade "ghost guns," as President Joe Biden's administration combats the increasing use of these largely untraceable weapons in crimes nationwide. The administration appealed after a lower court found that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its authority in issuing the rule targeting parts and kits for ghost guns, which can be assembled at home in minutes. Arguments are set for Oct. 8.

MEXICO GUNS LAWSUIT

A bid by U.S. gun maker Smith & Wesson and firearms wholesaler Interstate Arms to throw out Mexico's lawsuit accusing them of aiding the illegal trafficking of firearms to Mexican drug cartels will go before the justices. They appealed a lower court's refusal to dismiss Mexico's suit under a 2005 U.S. law that broadly shields gun companies from liability for crimes committed with their products. The suit accused gun companies of knowingly maintaining a distribution system that leads to guns being trafficked to cartels in Mexico. No date has been set for the arguments.

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

The court is set to decide the legality of a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The Biden administration appealed a lower court's decision upholding Tennessee's ban on medical treatments including hormones and surgeries for minors experiencing gender dysphoria. That refers to the significant distress that can result from incongruity between a person's gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth. No date has been set for the arguments.

ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY

The justices will consider whether a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify the age of users in an effort to restrict access to minors violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment safeguard against government infringement of speech. A trade group representing adult entertainment performers and companies appealed a lower court's decision upholding the Republican-led state's age-verification measure, finding that it likely did not violate the First Amendment. No date has been set for the arguments.

NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE

The court is set to consider whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the authority to license nuclear waste storage facilities following a judicial ruling that upended decades of practice by declaring it does not. The Biden administration and a company that was awarded a license by the NRC to build a waste storage facility in Texas appealed the lower court's ruling. The license was challenged by the states of Texas and New Mexico, as well as oil industry interests. The case is another one testing the power of U.S. regulatory agencies. No date has been set for the arguments.

FLAVORED VAPE PRODUCTS

The court is due to hear the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's defense of the agency's rejection of applications by two companies to sell flavored vape products that it has determined pose health risks for young consumers. A lower court ruled that the FDA failed to follow proper legal procedures under federal law when it denied the applications to bring their nicotine-containing products to market. The case is another one testing the power of U.S. regulatory agencies. No date has been set for the arguments.

NVIDIA SECURITIES FRAUD LAWSUIT

The justices will hear Nvidia's bid to scuttle a securities fraud lawsuit accusing the artificial intelligence chipmaker of misleading investors about how much of its sales went to the volatile cryptocurrency industry. Nvidia appealed after a lower court revived a proposed class action brought by shareholders in California against the company and its CEO. Nvidia has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom. Arguments are scheduled for Nov. 13.

FACEBOOK SECURITIES FRAUD LAWSUIT

Also coming before the justices is a bid by Meta's Facebook to scuttle a private securities fraud lawsuit accusing the social media platform of misleading investors about the misuse of its user data by the company and third parties. A lower court allowed a shareholder lawsuit brought in California and led by Amalgamated Bank to proceed. Arguments are scheduled for Nov. 6.

DEATH PENALTY CASE

The court will hear a bid by Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, convicted in a 1997 murder-for-hire, for a new trial based on his claim that prosecutors wrongly withheld certain evidence favorable to his defense. A lower court decided that the newly obtained evidence would not have changed the case's outcome. The Supreme Court in 2023 put on hold Glossip's scheduled execution. Arguments are scheduled for Oct. 9.

(Compiled by Andrew Chung and John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

US Supreme Court to weigh in on Mexico’s lawsuit against US gun manufacturers

Zach Schonfeld

THE HILL
Fri, October 4, 2024 

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up the gun industry’s appeal of a ruling allowing the Mexican government to proceed with its lawsuit against several prominent American firearm manufacturers.

Mexico contends the companies deliberately chose to “profit off the criminal market for their products” and caused a flood of guns to fall into the hands of Mexican cartels. The country says firearms manufacturers should pay billions in damages and change their practices.

U.S. federal law provides broad immunity to the firearm industry, however. A federal judge tossed Mexico’s lawsuit as a result, but an appeals court later reversed that ruling, allowing the case to move ahead.

The companies at the center of the suit are: Smith & Wesson Brands Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Glock Inc.; Sturm, Ruger & Company Inc.; Witmer Public Safety Group Inc., d/b/a Interstate Arms; Century International Arms Inc.; and Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC.

By agreeing to hear the gun industry’s appeal, the Supreme Court will need to decide whether immunity applies. The justices’ brief order sets up the case to be heard during the court’s upcoming annual term, with a decision expected by next summer.

Mexico claims its case falls under an exception to the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Gun control groups have long looked to repeal the law entirely.

The exception allows lawsuits when a gun manufacturer knowingly violates state or federal firearms law and the plaintiff was proximately harmed by the violation. The case marks the first time the Supreme Court will weigh in on the exception’s scope.

The companies assert Mexico’s legal theory does not come close to proving the American gun industry is the proximate cause of cartel violence, describing it as an “eight-step Rube Goldberg.”

“Mexico’s suit has no business in an American court,” the companies wrote in their petition.

Their appeal is backed by all of the nation’s Republican state attorneys general except Ohio’s, 27 Republican members of Congress and various gun rights groups.

No matter how the Supreme Court rules, many of the defendants are already off the hook. In August, a federal trial judge ruled on separate grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to hear claims against six of the eight firearms companies, meaning just two companies could face penalties if the Supreme Court decides the case in Mexico’s favor.

The Mexican government urged the Supreme Court to turn away the appeal, arguing recent ruling underscores that the case doesn’t merit the attention of the justices.

“The Court should allow further percolation before accepting review of these largely unventilated questions,” Mexico wrote in court filings.

If the Supreme Court ultimately rules in favor of Mexico, the case remains in its early stages, meaning the prospect of damages remains far off.

“At bottom, this case reduces to a clash of national values: Mexico makes no secret that it abhors this country’s approach to firearms, and that it wants to use the American court system to impose domestic gun controls on the United States that the American people themselves would never accept through the ordinary political process,” the industry wrote in its petition.

“But even though that grievance is placed under the lettering of a complaint, and was filed on a docket, it has no basis in law. This Court’s review is badly needed,” it continued.

US Supreme Court to decide if white, straight workers face higher bar in bias lawsuits

Updated Fri, October 4, 2024 
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether it should be more difficult for workers from "majority backgrounds," such as white or heterosexual people, to prove workplace discrimination claims.

The justices took up an appeal by Marlean Ames, a heterosexual woman, seeking to revive her lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Youth Services in which she said she lost her job to a gay man and was passed over for a promotion in favor of a gay woman in violation of federal civil rights law.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided last year that she had not shown the "background circumstances" that courts require to prove that she faced discrimination because she is straight, as she alleged.

She brought her lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark federal law banning workplace discrimination based on traits including race, sex, religion and national origin.

Since the 1980s, at least four other U.S. appeals courts have adopted similar hurdles to proving discrimination claims against members of majority groups, largely in cases involving white men. Those courts have said the higher bar is justified because discrimination against those workers is relatively uncommon.

But other courts have said that Title VII does not distinguish between bias against minority and majority groups.

A Supreme Court ruling in favor of Ames could provide a boost to the growing number of lawsuits by white and straight workers claiming they were discriminated against under company diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

The court will hear arguments in the case in its new term, which begins on Monday, and a decision is expected by the end of June.

Lawyers for Ames and the Ohio agency, which oversees the confinement and rehabilitation of juvenile felony offenders, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ames was in charge of ensuring the agency's compliance with a federal law designed to deter sexual assaults in prisons. She has said that despite receiving positive feedback for her job performance, she was demoted to her old job in 2019 and had her pay cut by nearly $20 an hour.

Ames has said she was replaced by a younger gay man, and that later in 2019 she was denied a promotion she had sought that went to a gay woman.

She sued the department in 2020. An Ohio federal judge dismissed the case last year, saying she had not shown the "background circumstances" to support her discrimination claim.

The 6th Circuit upheld that decision last December. The 6th Circuit said that background circumstances can include evidence that a member of a minority group, such as a gay person, made the challenged employment decision, or data showing a larger pattern of discrimination by an employer against members of a majority group.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

Azerbaijan rejects 'disgusting' US human rights criticism before COP29

Nailia Bagirova
Fri, October 4, 2024 

European House - Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio


By Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday rejected what he called a "disgusting" letter from U.S. lawmakers who criticised his country's human rights record and urged it to free political prisoners before it hosts next month's COP29 climate conference.

The letter, signed by nearly 60 lawmakers, urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to "press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and POWs, including ethnic Armenians, to enable a more conducive environment for successful diplomacy at COP29".


It said that "provocative" Azerbaijani statements towards Armenia risked undermining peace negotiations between the two countries, which have fought two wars since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Speaking in Jabrayil, a town recaptured from Armenian forces in a 2020 war, Aliyev called the letter "a disgusting appeal that cannot influence our will" and said it had been drawn up "to threaten and accuse us".

Azerbaijan's human rights record, including the detention of journalists and activists, is coming under increasing scrutiny as it prepares to welcome delegates and media from around the world to the November climate conference.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev's foreign policy adviser, said in a statement to Reuters that Azerbaijan's hosting of the event should not be turned into "a political tool". He accused critics of seeking to deflect attention away from climate action.

Representatives of Ruben Vardanyan, a former Russian investment banker who was a top official in the ethnic Armenian leadership of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, filed lawsuits this week saying he has been tortured, defamed by the media and denied his rights to a speedy trial in Azerbaijan.

Vardanyan has been detained for the past year since Baku's forces staged a lightning offensive to take back Karabakh, an internationally recognised part of Azerbaijan where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence since breaking away in the 1990s.

Azerbaijan's prosecutor general said in response to the complaint that all Vardanyan's rights were being respected and he had received a dozen visits from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"His right to the presumption of innocence was not violated by the prosecutor's office or other state bodies, and he was not subjected to inhuman treatment or torture," the prosecutor's office said in a statement to Reuters.

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, which Baku denies. The two countries have for the last year been in engaged in fitful talks over a peace treaty.

Aliyev on Friday accused Armenia of being insincere about wanting to complete a deal and of rearming for fresh fighting, warning it to "stop these dangerous games!"

Armenia, which this year withdrew from several Azerbaijani border villages it had long controlled, has said in recent weeks that Azerbaijan does not appear interested in signing a treaty.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Helene hit Trump strongholds in Georgia and North Carolina. It could swing the election.

Ariel Wittenberg
Fri, October 4, 2024 


Hurricane Helene hit especially hard in heavily Republican areas of Georgia and North Carolina — a fact that could work to Donald Trump’s disadvantage in the two swing states.

Research has shown that major disasters can influence both voter turnout and voter preference. And Helene has pushed this contest into novel territory: It’s the first catastrophic event in U.S. history to hit two critical swing states within six weeks of a presidential election, based on a POLITICO’s E&E News analysis of data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The challenge for Trump: The parts of western North Carolina and eastern Georgia that were flooded by the monster storm are largely Republican. In 2020, he won 61 percent of the vote in the North Carolina counties that were declared a disaster after Helene. He won 54 percent of the vote in Georgia's disaster counties.

Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris this week visited Georgia, a state that President Joe Biden won by just 11,779 votes in 2020. Georgia and North Carolina each have 16 electoral votes, and polls show that Trump is leading Harris by about 1 percentage point in each state, well within the margin of error.

“There’s going to be a lot of [voting] alterations, and it probably is going to affect turnout,” said Andy Jackson, director of the John Locke Foundation’s Civitas Center for Public Integrity, a free-market think tank in North Carolina.

Now, both states face crucial decisions in the next few days about how to help people register and vote after massive flooding ripped away roads, shuttered towns and dispersed residents. Those include whether to extend next week’s voter registration deadlines, grant more time for voters to cast absentee ballots, and set up new polling places in areas where floods destroyed roads.

State records show that nearly 40,000 absentee ballots were mailed to voters in the 25 North Carolina counties that were declared a disaster following Helene. Fewer than 1,000 have been returned.

In eastern Georgia’s heavily Democratic Richmond County, three of four early voting sites appear to be undamaged, county elections chief W. Travis Doss Jr. said Friday. Doss’ staff has also reached out to all 43 election day sites to determine their status, but has not heard back from about 30 of them due to power and internet outages.

“Until we get out there to assess for power and what not, I’m not sure” what the situation will be, Doss said. “Right now, of course, our immediate concerns were absentee and voting registration, and then the next step is early voting, and then the next step is voting day."

Helene hit some predominantly Democratic communities hard too, adding to the uncertainty. In North Carolina, “Buncombe [County] was affected in really bad ways, and that is a liberal bastion,” said Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University. “And Watauga is in really bad shape, also a blue leaning county."

Overall, Helene could “dramatically change who is in the electorate,” Cooper said.

“In a state like North Carolina where margins matter, then every little tweak to the electorate could be the tweak that makes the difference,” Cooper added. “It’s right on the razor's edge between red and blue.”

County elections offices in North Carolina — five of which remained closed Thursday — will assess damage to early voting sites and polling stations to determine “which facilities won’t be available,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said this week.

When the North Carolina Legislature meets Wednesday, it could give counties money for emergency polling places and extend both the Oct. 11 registration deadline and the Election Day deadline for mail-in ballots to be received.

And in Georgia, where Monday is the last day to register to vote, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that “physical infrastructure” will be in place when early voting starts Oct. 15. Counties “having to relocate early voting locations” must notify voters, Raffensperger added.

After past disasters, states have similarly extended deadlines for registering to vote and submitting absentee ballots, opened new polling places, and allowed displaced residents to vote by email or fax. Republicans have at times opposed those efforts, including after the Covid pandemic.

But such actions have had varied results, according to studies that are gaining prominence as six states from Florida to Virginia deal with damage from Helene.

“You need to do everything possible to erect emergency polling places in generally the same places voters are used to voting,” says Kevin Morris, a voting policy scholar at the Brennan Center for Justice.

A2022 study by Morris found that voter turnout fell below historical averages in the heavily Republican Panhandle counties of Florida after Hurricane Michael demolished the area in October 2018. Although Florida made it easier to vote by absentee ballots, voters were confused by the state's moves to close and consolidate polling places. They weren't sure where to go on Election Day.

“If [a voter’s] house is damaged or whatever else and they realize suddenly their polling place has moved, then maybe that’s the straw that makes it too much for them to vote,” Morris told E&E News. “A lot of the decreased turnout was attributable to the closure of polling places around the Panhandle.”

After Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina in September 2018, the state extended the registration deadline and let counties relocate voting sites.

But in 2020, when the elections board relaxed absentee voting requirements amid the pandemic, GOP lawmakers said the board had overstepped its authority and later changed state election rules. One change ended a grace period that allowed mail-in ballots to be received three days after Election Day.

“There’s definitely a layer of politics on top of any decision they make given what happened after Covid,” said Cooper, the Western Carolina professor.

Other election-year disasters do not appear to have directly affected the outcomes of previous presidential races.

Hurricane Sandy struck uncontested states such as Connecticut, New York and New Jersey in late October in 2012, and then-President Barack Obama won all three. (Obama did arguably gain political benefits from his administration’s handling of the storm, which drew praise at the time from Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.)

Hurricane Matthew, in October 2016, hit only one contested state — Florida — and spread damage along the Atlantic Coast, a mix of Democratic and Republican areas.

But overall, research shows that disasters affect voter turnout.

Sandy hit the tristate area one week before the 2012 presidential election, leading some New York voters to cast ballots in makeshift voting tents powered by generators in neighborhoods that didn't have electricity.

Decisions by New Jersey officials to keep voting accessible to storm victims proved more controversial.

The Republican lieutenant governor at the time, Kim Guadagno, ruled that anyone who was displaced by Sandy could be designated an overseas voter, allowing them to cast ballots by fax and email. The decision overwhelmed county governments by suddenly inundating them with thousands of fax and email applications.

A 2014 Rutgers Law School report criticized Guadagno’s decision, saying that remote voting caused “chaos” and made electronic votes vulnerable to hacking.

“Although emergency action was warranted, Internet and email voting was not the solution,” report author Penny Venetis said at the time.

Another study found that Sandy “made little difference” in determining whether people in New York City would vote, partly because voters were highly motivated to reelect Obama.

When people see an election as “historic” or potentially having “long-lasting effects” on their community, “they are willing to endure costs such as low temperatures, long lines, and even traveling to distant polling places,” the researchers found.

Republicans in Congress leave Helene victims hanging

Eric Garcia
Fri, October 4, 2024 

Republicans in Congress leave Helene victims hanging


On Thursday evening, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

This is wholly unsurprising for Greene, the right-wing firebrand and conspiracymonger who once mused about the possibility of Jews controlling space lasers for the purpose of starting wildfires. The more surprising aspect is that it reflects the approach the Republican Party is taking generally to Hurricane Helene: rather than doing its job and offering concrete aid to people suffering from the devastation, GOP lawmakers are devolving into conspiracy theories and, like everything else, fearmongering about undocumented immigrants.

As Inside Washington discussed on Thursday, some Republicans such as Senator Rick Scott of Florida have worked in tandem with President Joe Biden in response to Helene. Indeed, even Senator Lindsey Graham put his beef with Biden on pause and greeted his former friend this week.

Similarly, a bipartisan coterie of Senators sent a letter to Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee calling for a supplemental package for Helene relief. That group included Scott and his Florida colleague Marco Rubio; Graham and his fellow South Carolinian Tim Scott; Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock; and Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Blackburn and Scott are up for re-election and know they can leave nothing up to chance. And despite his conservatism, Tillis has also focused on getting results.

But these Republicans are in the minority. Rather, earlier this week during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange, House Speaker Mike Johnson all but said Congress would not act.

“Congress has previously provided FEMA with the funds it needs to respond, so we will make sure that those resources are appropriately allocated,” he said. In other words: don’t expect anything extra, even if you need it.

Biden responded to the Speaker’s sentiments with a clear message: “We can't wait ... People need help now.” The president also correctly stressed that much of the money in past disaster relief bills has gone to more Republican-leaning areas than Democratic-leaning areas. In other words, he wasn’t asking for money for “his” voters. He was simply thinking of the suffering of Americans.

But the fact the areas most affected by Helene are fairly Republican-leaning might be the thing that delays the aid. Johnson is trying to defend his slim Republican majority and that includes endangered incumbents in places like California, New York and New Jersey, about as far away from the storm damage as one could imagine. Many of the areas hit by Helene already lean Republican, and because of gerrymandering, don’t run the risk of losing even if Congress botches the response.

To put it bluntly, it might also might not help Democrats who are trying to hold their one-seat majority if everyone had to come back and vote on extra aid. Calling the Senate back into session would take Montana’s Jon Tester, the most endangered incumbent, off the trail. And worse, it might actually make Rick Scott look good and help him win re-election.

During his speech, Johnson said that “amid the uncertainty and confusion that these tragedies bring, one thing is certain: in the aftermath of disasters like this, we really do see the best of America.”

Unfortunately, he was not talking about his own conference or even the presidential candidate he supports. Donald Trump spent this week falsely claiming that money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency meant for disaster relief had gone to housing undocumented migrants.

“They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants who they want to vote in this election,” he said in Saginaw, Michigan.

Aside from being completely untrue, Trump’s claim is the peak of hypocrisy, considering that in 2019, he himself diverted money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to fund immigration detention space for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But this is what the Republican Party has become. Similar to how during the vice presidential debate, Senator JD Vance always pivoted back to immigration, demonizing migrants is the only solution they seem to have to winning this election.