Chinese EV giant BYD beats Tesla in quarterly revenue for first time


By  AFP
October 30, 2024

BYD's success has been helped by government subsidies, with Beijing pumping huge amounts of cash into domestic firms as well as research and development 

- Copyright AFP Kazuhiro NOGI

Peter CATTERALL

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD reported surging sales on Wednesday, surpassing global rival Tesla in quarterly revenue for the first time as its push into overseas markets advances.

The EV and battery giant is a leading player in recent efforts by Chinese automotive firms to expand overseas — plans that are increasingly threatened by thorny trade disputes between Beijing and the West.

BYD posted operating revenue of 201.1 billion yuan ($28.2 billion) during the third quarter, a filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed, up 24 percent from the same period last year.

The Shenzhen-based firm’s quarterly revenue figure for the first time exceeded that of American EV powerhouse Tesla, which last week posted $25.2 billion in third-quarter revenue.

BYD’s net profit during the period came in at 11.6 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), the filing showed, up 11.5 percent from the third quarter last year.

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD reported surging sales on Wednesday, surpassing global rival Tesla in quarterly revenue for the first time – Copyright AFP/File PEDRO PARDO

Tesla’s profitability outlook had come under heightened scrutiny after slashing vehicle prices over the last year or so in response to increased offerings from other companies — including BYD — in the EV industry.

But Elon Musk’s firm reported last week a third-quarter profit of $2.2 billion, up 17 percent from the same period last year.

BYD — which adopts the English slogan “Build Your Dreams” — is the most prominent EV manufacturer in China, the world’s largest automotive market.

The initial rapid sales growth of BYD and its industry peers in their home market was facilitated in part by generous subsidies from Beijing.

But the European Union has said that the extensive state support enjoyed by Chinese firms has led to unfair competition, with an investigation by the bloc finding that Beijing’s subsidies were undercutting local competitors.

The EU announced Tuesday that it would levy extra tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on Chinese EVs, a move described by trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis as “standing up for fair market practices and for the European industrial base”.

– Intensifying battle –

Beijing slammed the measures on Wednesday, saying it had lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization and vowing to “take all necessary measures to firmly protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies”.

Earlier this year, the United States and Canada raised customs duties on Chinese EVs to 100 percent.

China is targeting car sales to be mainly made up of electric and hybrid models by 2035.

Hopes of achieving those ambitions were bolstered in July when such vehicles accounted for more than half of all domestic sales for the first time, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Originally specialising in the design and production of batteries, BYD diversified into the automotive industry in 2003.

Its latest quarterly results come as China’s crowded EV sector is locked in a cut-throat price war that is weighing on profitability as smaller firms struggle to remain competitive.

BYD said in an earnings report for the first half of this year that it had “effectively dealt with challenges brought by intensified industrial competition”.

As the fight picks up in its home market, BYD has been ramping up a globalisation push, with plans to open factories in Hungary and Turkey.

Industrial slump leaves Germany on brink of recession

By AFP
October 30, 2024

News that Volkswagen plans to close at least three factories in Germany and slash tens of thousands of jobs has added to the country's economic woes - 

Copyright AFP/File JENS SCHLUETER

Michelle FITZPATRICK

German output likely contracted again in the third quarter as an industrial slump drags on, official data is expected to show Wednesday, tipping Europe’s largest economy into recession.

Federal statistics agency Destatis will unveil its quarterly GDP estimate at 10am (0900 GMT).

The economy ministry has said it expects “a renewed slight decline” after gross domestic product already shrank by 0.1 percent in the second quarter.

A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

“The German economy is unlikely to have emerged from its weak phase in the third quarter,” the ministry said in its autumn forecasts this month.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet were narrowly more upbeat, predicting a quarter-on-quarter stagnation.

Other major European economies were also set to publish third-quarter GDP data Wednesday. The figure for the eurozone as a whole will likely be weighed down by Germany’s performance.

Traditionally a European growth engine, Germany has been hit hard by elevated energy costs in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, sluggish domestic consumption following a period of high inflation and cooling export demand.

The headwinds have taken their toll on the country’s crucial industrial sector, which accounts for around 20 percent of German GDP.

“The manufacturing sector is running out of orders,” the BDI federation of German industries said in its latest report.

The BDI now sees factory output falling by three percent year-on-year in 2024, noting that this would be “the third consecutive drop”.

The downturn has been particularly visible in Germany’s flagship auto sector.

Volkswagen is considering closing at least three German plants and axing tens of thousands of jobs, labour leaders told employees this week, as Europe’s biggest car manufacturer confronts stiff Chinese competition especially in electric vehicles.

Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz all lowered their annual outlook in September, citing falling Chinese demand.



– Government under pressure –


Long-standing structural challenges are adding to Germany’s woes, including complex bureaucracy, under-investment in infrastructure, an ageing workforce and a costly green energy transition.

Pressure is mounting on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to take action, but the fragile three-party coalition is at odds over how best to turn the economic tide.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck, from the Greens party, last week proposed a multi-billion-euro investment bonanza to help German business.

But the idea was quickly shot down by hawkish Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

Lindner, from the liberal FDP, is a staunch defender of Germany’s constitutionally enshrined debt limits and has resisted calls from other coalition members to loosen the rules.

The International Monetary Fund has waded in on the debate, with its European head Alfred Kammer on Tuesday saying Germany needed structural reforms as well as public infrastructure investments.

To achieve this, he told the Sueddeutsche newspaper, “the debt brake can be relaxed”.

Germany was the only major advanced economy to shrink in 2023 and the government expects another mild contraction in 2024.

But it sees a recovery starting in 2025, when easing inflation and higher wages are expected to boost consumption.

German inflation slowed to 1.6 percent in September, the lowest level since 2021. October’s inflation figure is due later on Wednesday.

Volkswagen sees ‘painful’ cost cuts ahead as profit plunges

By AFP
October 30, 2024

Volkswagen is planning an unprecedented restructuring that could include thousands of job cuts - Copyright AFP/File PEDRO PARDO
Léa PERNELLE, Michelle FITZPATRICK

Ailing auto giant Volkswagen warned Wednesday that “painful” cost cuts were unavoidable as third-quarter profit plummeted, fuelling tensions with unions which fear mass job losses and factory closures on home turf Germany.

Europe’s biggest carmaker reported net profit of 1.58 billion euros ($1.7 billion) between July and September, down 64-percent from a year earlier.

The German group — whose 10 brands range from its core VW models to Seat, Skoda and Porsche — has been plunged into crisis by high manufacturing costs, a stuttering switch to electric vehicles and increased competition in key market China.

“We must intensify our efforts to remain competitive. And we have to act now. Any delay would be irresponsible,” Volkswagen finance chief Arno Antlitz said in a call with reporters.

The company is eyeing an unprecedented cost-savings push to turn the tide and dropped a bombshell in September when it said it was considering closing factories in Germany for the first time.

Worker representatives this week said at least three German VW plants were at risk and tens of thousands of jobs could go at the namesake brand, while remaining employees faced a 10-percent salary cut.

Volkswagen bosses have yet to comment on the details of the savings plan but have described the situation as “serious”.

“We are facing some difficult and painful decisions,” Antlitz said.

The savings proposals are focused on the core VW brand, which reported an operating profit margin of only two percent over the first nine months — far from the 6.5-percent targeted by 2026.

“This highlights the urgent need for significant cost reductions and efficiency gains,” Antlitz said, also citing a “challenging market environment”.

– Industry headwinds –

The group’s global vehicle deliveries fell by seven percent in the third quarter, with an increase in sales in North America failing to offset a 15-percent fall in China.

Deliveries of battery electric models were down 10 percent.

The group said results were also impacted by “higher fixed costs” and restructuring expenses.

Other German carmakers are facing similar headwinds, and Volkswagen in September joined BMW and Mercedes-Benz in cutting its outlook for 2024.

The manufacturers are also nervously watching the European Union’s decision to slap hefty tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars, which they fear could trigger a bitter trade war.

Volkswagen began a second round of talks with the powerful IG Metall union Wednesday, expected to shed more light on the savings plan.

Labour leaders have vowed to fight back against any plant closures, and strike action is possible from December when a truce period ends.

The IG Metall union is also seeking a seven-percent pay rise for workers, which bosses have rejected.

‘New wave’ as start-up sweeps up Thai ocean plastic


By AFP
October 29, 2024

A Moken fisherman carries bags of plastic waste to sell to Tide staff members at his fishing village on Thailand's southern island of Koh Chang - Copyright AFP MANAN VATSYAYANA
Sara HUSSEIN

As a long-tail boat arrives at a fishing village on the southern Thai island of Koh Chang, residents gather to sell their wares — not seafood, but plastic.

The villagers, members of the semi-nomadic Moken people, are selling to Tide, a start-up attempting to create new value from old plastic collected from or near the sea.

Recyclers have long scooped up some of the over six million tonnes of plastic that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates enters the ocean each year.

But Tide works directly with everyone in the process, from collectors in remote Thai fishing villages to carpet manufacturers in the Netherlands.

Its plastic is traceable and certified as “ocean-bound” — a process that involves annual audits by an NGO.

It is processed using a method Tide says results in a recycled product of comparable quality to virgin plastic.

“We are convinced there is more than enough plastic in our world and we should take what already exists,” said Marc Krebs, a co-founder of the Swiss company.

On Koh Chang, a 30-minute speedboat ride from the sleepy southern town of Ranong, the Tide boat’s arrival prompts a flurry of activity.

Mimi, 65, has brought out several old rice sacks of bottles that join a growing heap of torn fishing nets, old rope and discarded jerrycans.

“The more I collect, the more arrives. I can’t collect it all,” she told AFP, declining to give a family name.

The villagers live along the beach in ramshackle wooden homes on stilts.

Underneath, the high tide mark is clear — behind it is a carpet of refuse, from polystyrene boxes and flip-flops to take-away cups and crisp packets.

Only a small portion is commercially viable for recycling. Tide buys six categories, including fishing nets and common types of plastic bottles (PET) and cartons (HDPE).

“Each day, we have a lot of products that we can’t sell and can’t recycle, and I’m sure there is much more of it in the ocean,” Tide’s Thailand operations director, Nirattisai Ponputi, told AFP.



– Onerous sorting –



While the market price of recycled plastic fluctuates, Tide pays a set rate on Koh Chang to encourage continued collection.

And they sometimes take items that can’t be recycled because the island has no waste management options, so the alternative is mostly open burning.

Even recyclable items can be challenging.

Bottles with stamped logos must be “hotwashed” before processing, coloured plastic can contaminate recycled material, and most ink-printed labels cannot be recycled.

A PET soft drink bottle might have an HDPE cap and a PVC label, creating an onerous sorting process.

Sometimes it isn’t even clear what plastic has been used, so Tide uses a spectrometer to work out what can be recycled.

“There are no regulations about the plastic that you can put in your product, so it’s left on the shoulders of the collectors to work it out,” said Capucine Paour, Tide’s external project manager.

Plastic collected on Koh Chang and surrounding islands goes to Tide’s Ranong facility, where workers painstakingly sort it again before pressing it into bales.

Founded in 2019, Tide collects around 1,000 tonnes of plastic a year from Thailand and other locations including Mexico.

“It’s still a very small amount” compared to the global scale of the problem, acknowledged Krebs.



– ‘Ban is better!’ –



The collected plastic is processed into pellets before being shipped to customers like Condor Group, one of Europe’s largest carpet manufacturers.

The firm uses recycled material from Tide and elsewhere for around a quarter of its products, including rugs, car mats and artificial grass.

“Tide is really unique,” said Jan Hoekman Jr, one of the company’s directors.

“You can follow the product from collection to the final products, which you see here. That’s all transparent, which is very important if you talk about sustainability.”

Tide says its product is 40 percent more expensive than virgin plastic, but customers like Condor Group are willing to pay a premium.

“We see sustainability not just as a trend, but more as stewardship for future generations,” said Hoekman Jr.

Condor Group’s buzzing production lines feel a million miles from the quiet off-season beaches of Koh Chang, where Wiranuch Scimone, 54, collects plastic for Tide.

In her 20 years on Koh Chang, she has seen the waste washing ashore go from mostly fishing nets to huge amounts of unrecyclable polystyrene foam that locals often end up burning.

The monsoon waves bring in so much trash that she sometimes spends hours on a beach without being able to collect it all.

“It would be best if there were no plastic,” she said, adding in English: “Ban is better!”

Tide, a for-profit company, is still a relatively small operation, but it is expanding, moving into Ghana next.

“You have to start somewhere,” said Krebs.

“We are quite convinced that we are at the beginning of a new wave.”

Year end sees renewed efforts to protect the oceans


By Dr. Tim Sandle
October 29, 2024LDIGITAL JOURNAL

An undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions, shows their Titan submersible launching from a platform - Copyright AFP PIUS UTOMI EKPEI

To create new marine protected areas and to showcase new conservation research three major meetings are taking place as we move towards the end of 2024. These events have been highlighted by National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas campaign.

COP16 (October 21-November 1, 2024)

At COP16 new research was presented. The discussions at the biodiversity summit taking place in Cali, Colombia focused on progress towards achieving the global goal to protect 30 percent of land and sea by the end of 2030.



New forthcoming peer-reviewed research in pre-print reveals that the world needs more than 190,000 new marine protected areas (MPAs) to achieve the 30×30 target for the ocean.

Kevin Chand, Sr. Director, Pacific Ocean Policy, National Geographic Pristine Seas says in a statement provided to Digital Journal: “Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) and governments play an important role in this process. The key to effective conservation is not just protecting any 30%—we need to protect the right areas to achieve the biodiversity, climate and food security benefits of ocean protection.”

Also at the conference, Portugal joined Uruguay and Dominica in establishing the newest marine protected areas. The regional Azores government voted to establish the largest protected area in the North Atlantic.

Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting (CHOGM, October 21-October 26, 2024)

At the close of CHOGM on October 26, Commonwealth countries adopted the historic Apia Commonwealth Declaration for One Resilient Common Future, which calls on member states to protect and restore the ocean across a range of key conservation areas, including protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030.

COP29 (November 11-22, 2024)

Set to take place in a landlocked country, Azerbaijan, COP29 is likely to overlook the ocean’s role as the planet’s largest carbon sink–and, increasingly, a carbon source. A study released earlier this year in Marine Policy revealed that a damaging fishing practice, bottom trawling, releases 370 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. It also acidifies the ocean, impearling marine life.

To provide supporting data, the Pristine Seas’ team is in year two of a five-year expedition aboard a specially-outfitted research vessel, the Argo, to support national and local efforts to protect marine areas. Pristine Seas works with Indigenous and local communities, governments, and other partners to help protect vital places in the ocean.

Bolivia ‘going from bad to worse’: At the barricades with Morales supporters

By AFP
October 29, 2024

Supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales block a road linking Cochabamba with La Paz, near the village of Sipe Sipe, on October 28, 2024 - Copyright AFP AIZAR RALDES

Gonzalo TORRICO

At a traffic stop on a road leading to the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba, a group of coca-chewing demonstrators man a barricade of tree trunks.

For over two weeks, supporters of former president Evo Morales have been blocking roads around the country, particularly in Cochabamba, his political stronghold, to ward off his potential arrest on rape charges.

The roadblocks are the latest escalation in an intensifying political atmosphere in the South American nation.

On Sunday, the standoff between Morales, who resigned under a cloud in 2019 but is now trying to make a comeback, and his successor, Luis Arce, spiraled further after Morales accused state agents of attempting to assassinate him.

A video shared on social media showed a pickup he was traveling in riddled with bullet holes and the driver with blood on his head.

The government says police fired on Morales’s vehicle after he ran a checkpoint, and after police came under fire from a vehicle in his convoy.



– Broader anti-government movement –



“How could they attack him? Here in Cochabamba we won’t allow that kind of situation. We will intensify our mobilization,” Jose Loayza, a 40-year-old wheat farmer who was among the protesters at the traffic stop, told AFP indignantly.

Supporters of Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, who ruled from 2006 to 2019, say the 65-year-old is the victim of “judicial persecution.”

Over the last few weeks, protests have ballooned into a wider anti-government revolt, and tensions with security forces have reached boiling point.

On Tuesday, 12 police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators near the central town of Mairana, the second such incident in four days as the security forces move in to try to clear the roads.

Bolivia’s 12 million inhabitants have been struggling with shortages of fuel and spiraling food prices since the government last year reduced oil imports to offset a decline in natural gas exports.

Annual inflation stood at 6.2 percent in September, the highest level since July 2014.

The roadblocks have accentuated food and fuel shortages nationwide and plunged the economy even deeper into disarray.

The economy ministry estimates millions of dollars in losses for the transport sector alone.

– ‘Our pockets are empty’ –

“Our earnings are not enough to pay for all the things that have gone up in price: rice, sugar, cooking oil,” a woman in Sipe Sipe, a village near Cochabamba, who did not wish to be identified, told AFP.

“Our pockets are empty and we cannot feed our children,” she said.

Near Sipe Sipe, demonstrators formed a line to pass heavy rocks collected from a dry river bed to block the bridge above.

A poster of Arce had been defaced with black paint.

“The country is going from bad to worse,” Grover Torrico, a truck driver, said.

“We’re blocking (roads) to obtain what we need: food, fuel, dollars,” he added.

Morales, a former coca grower, was extremely popular until he tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term.

Despite being barred from running again, he wants to challenge his minister-turned-rival Arce for the nomination of the left-wing MAS party in the country’s August 2025 presidential elections.

Days after he lead a march of thousands of mainly Indigenous Bolivians on the capital La Paz to protest Arce’s policies, prosecutors announced he was under investigation for rape, human trafficking and human smuggling over his alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015.

Morales is accused of fathering a daughter with the girl.

Morales has called the accusations “a lie,” and has directly accused Arce of trying to assassinate him in order to prevent his return to power.

“We want President Luis Arce to resign. He must call new elections,” Loayza said.

He vowed Arce would suffer the same fate as former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who fled the country in October 2003 after ordering a bloody crackdown on protests over his free-market policies, in which dozens of people were killed.

“We already sent Sanchez de Lozada packing. What’s to stop us doing the same with Arce?” he asked.

UN rights chief urges Bangladesh to ‘protect’ democracy after revolution

By AFP
October 29, 2024

UN rights chief Volker Türk (C) looks at graffiti on the walls of Bangladesh's Dhaka University marking the uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina - Copyright AFP Abdul Goni

UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday urged students at Bangladesh’s Dhaka University, the heart of the uprising that toppled autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, to “protect” democracy to end cycles of revenge.

“Democracy is one of the most powerful ideas ever dreamed up by humanity… but it is also fragile — something that we must nurture and protect –- particularly in its earliest stages,” Turk said in an address.

“I know you are aware of the pitfalls that led other pro-democracy movements into a dead end.”

Tens of thousands demonstrated on campus and in the surrounding neighbourhood as protests against job quotas morphed into a nationwide struggle to end Hasina’s 15 years of iron-fisted rule.

More than 700 people were killed, many in a brutal police crackdown, before Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5.

Several of the top student protest leaders were enrolled at the university, some of whom are now part of the cabinet of the interim government which is led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

Hasina’s rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents. A Bangladeshi court this month issued an arrest warrant for the ousted leader.

– ‘Pivotal time’ –

Turk told students they had “shown great courage in standing up for justice and equality”, and that he was honoured to address them “at a pivotal time, and in a symbolic place”.

But he also warned them of the risks as they support the huge challenge of restoring democratic institutions.

“Beware of the idea that the ends justify the means,” Turk added.

“The process through which you seek change is just as crucial as the outcome. Strengthening institutions can be more important in the long term than tearing them down.”

Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is on a two-day visit to Dhaka to meet with Yunus, the chief justice, army chief and other leaders, his office said.

“Inequality, cycles of revenge and retribution, marginalisation, corruption, and gross human rights violations must be consigned to the past. There must be no repetition, no going back. The present and future belong to equality, to justice.”

Dozens of Hasina’s allies have been arrested, while the last known whereabouts of the 77-year-old fugitive was a military airbase near India’s capital New Delhi.

“We cannot allow a vicious new cycle of reprisals and revenge to repeat itself”, Turk added.

“The pursuit of justice must also go beyond trials of those responsible, and address the root causes to achieve the broader social transformation to which you aspire”.

Golden statue erected in swing state

 mocks Trump by honoring 'lifetime

 of sexual assault'

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
October 30, 2024 

Another monument has been erected mocking former President Donald Trump — this time in a key battleground state — following a series of activism art installations throughout the United States.

The third "monument" appeared Wednesday in Philadelphia and is a golden statue of Trump standing behind a statue of a partially nude woman. Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery has been following the statues as they pop up.

The nude woman statue is entitled “Maja,” by Gerhard Marcks installed in 2021, the Washington Post reported.

The plaque reads: "In Honor Of A Lifetime Of Sexual Assault," and it cites Trump's "grab em by the p---y" comment he made on a hot microphone during a 2005 segment for "Access Hollywood." Trump bragged he couldn't control himself and would force himself on women, kissing them. He then said he could grab the women because he was a "celebrity and they let you do it!"

The same statue also reportedly appeared near another nude sculpture in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday. A MAGA fan and local candidate has already removed and damaged the statue, reported KOIN news.


Additionally, a statue mocked Jan. 6 insurrectionists and another highlighted the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Donald Trump calling them "very fine people." Both were raised in Washington, D.C.

A group called "Civic Crafting" filled out the permit with the National Parks Service to erect the monuments in Washington.

See the photos below:

ARBITRARY WITH NO APPEAL

Experts pummel Supreme Court's 'wrongheaded' decision on Virginia voter purge

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
October 30, 2024 

U.S. Supreme Court associate justices Clarence Thomas (l) and Samuel Alito (c), with Chief Justice John Roberts.(Raw Story photo illustration via photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court made what may seem like a minor decision about a small group of Virginia voters, but legal experts are sounding the alarm.

After the court gave Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin the green light to pursue his purge of the voter rolls, these experts warned that this ruling ends a long-standing precedent not to have changes within 90 days of the election.

Concern among voting rights advocates is that the purge was already found to be inaccurate. The GOP lawmakers who support it have claimed that it was using recent data from the Department of Motor Vehicles to purge non-citizens accurately. Actual citizens who can prove their citizenship have been caught up in the purge, leaving them with last-minute hoops to jump through to cast a ballot

Also Read: The Purge is real: Inside the GOP's 2024 playbook to disenfranchise voters

"This only affects a small number of people but is a wrongheaded decision in light of clear federal law," said election law expert Marc Elias.

"The truth is, existing methods for ensuring only citizens register to vote are adequate. Voters have to certify they are citizens when they register. States check before they are added to the rolls," wrote former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance.

"Law Dork" Chris Geidner noted that all of the lower courts agreed that the purge was likely illegal under federal law.

Technically, he explained, the High Court is "staying the injunction pending Virginia’s appeal of the case." He remarks that the ruling "contains no explanation of why the justices took this action."

"This is a disturbing shadow docket decision, up there with the 2021 shadow docket decision allowing Texas’s S.B. 8 vigilante abortion law to go into effect despite Roe," he also said.

"This order is bad not only because of what it will do to voters in Virginia but also because of the mischief that it will invite against voters nationwide," lamented civil rights lawyer Matthew Segal on X.

Harvard Law School Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos agreed in an X post, "Assuming the Court's decision was driven by Purcell, this situation shows why Purcell shouldn't always be dispositive. Federal law says that voter purges shouldn't happen close to an election. If a state violates that law, Purcell shouldn't immunize the state's illegal action."

FLORDIA IN PLAY

'Alex Jones turn you down?' GOP senator trashed for cozying up to 'toxic' MAGA influencer

Kathleen Culliton
October 30, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: Laura Loomer arrives ahead of former U.S. President Donald Trump's debate with Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

A Republican senator faced significant backlash Wednesday after he first disavowed racist jokes told at former President Donald Trump's recent rally then promoted his on a podcast with a white nationalist.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who is running for reelection this year, promoted his appearance on Laura Loomer's show just days after condemning comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's slur on Puerto Ricans, whose nation he called a "floating island of garbage."

"Excited to talk about the Senate GOP Leader race soon with [Loomer]!" wrote Scott. "We need Republicans in Washington to act like Republicans again. Looking forward to the conversation!"

Replied independent journalist Aaron Rupar, "Did Alex Jones turn you down or what?"

Loomer is the controversial MAGA activist who has spread conspiracy theories about the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, pronounced herself a "proud Islamophobe" and addressed white nationalists at a 2022 conference during which she declared she was a "white advocate," reports show.

When Trump last month summoned Loomer onto his personal plane and brought her to a Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony in New York City, and at the time it sparked outrage on the right.

And when Scott promoted his appearance on her podcast Tuesday night, he faced similar condemnation from policy experts, political commentators and even a former Trump aide.

"So Rick Scott condemned the anti-Puerto Rican bigotry at the MSG rally, but is going to appear with Laura Loomer, a self avowed white nationalist and Islamophobe on her podcast," wrote Tim Wise, a senior fellow at the African American Policy Forum.

"Lets you know Scott's concerns: it's not that he minds racism. He just needs Puerto Rican votes."

ALSO READ: 'Chosen by God': A new kind of convert is making the pilgrimage to see Trump

Mark Jacob, a former Chicago Tribune editor, urged Florida voters not to validate Scott's campaign tactics with their votes on Nov. 5 — and threw support behind his Democratic challenger instead.

"Here’s Republican Sen. Rick Scott legitimizing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who said 9/11 was 'an inside job' and suggested the Parkland school shooting was a hoax," he wrote. "Please, Florida. Vote Scott out. Vote Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in."

Christopher Mathias, senior reporter for the Huffington Post, noted Scott's promotion came within days of condemning Hinchcliffe.

"Less than 48 hrs after distancing self from the racist Puerto Rico remark at MSG, Scott promotes Loomer," wrote Matthias, "who calls herself 'proud Islamophobe' & 'pro-white nationalism' who 'really does believe in IQ science' & called Ilhan Omar 'black dog' & said Somalis are 'inbred' & 'low IQ.'"


Mathias' HuffPo colleague Igor Bobic also highlighted a racist joke Loomer herself made last month that drew criticism from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as well as Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).

"Loomer said if Harris wins the election 'the White House will smell like curry,' drawing condemnations from Graham, Tillis, & even MTG," Bobic wrote. "Graham called her “toxic” and urged Trump to keep his distance."

Trump's former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews posited Scott's decision to appear on the show reflected his desperation to hold onto his Senate seat.

"Imagine wanting power so badly that you’re willing to debase yourself like this," Matthews wrote. "Feeling the need to kowtow to Laura Loomer is disqualifying for someone seeking to lead the Senate GOP."

In Tennessee, the despair of gun control advocates

Agence France-Presse
October 30, 2024 

Nashville residents Melissa Alexander and Mary Joyce advocated for gun control restrictions as leaders of the 'Covenant Moms' group, founded in the aftermath of a school shooting at Covenant High School on March 27, 2023 (SETH HERALD/AFP)

After a deadly school shooting in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee last year, Democratic voters, lawmakers, and even some Republican mothers called for stricter gun control laws.

But the state assembly blocked any progress, dashing hopes for change in a state that deeply values firearm rights.

"We're single-issue voters, with guns being the number one issue," said Melissa Alexander, a real estate agent, gun owner, and mother who takes pride in her son's hunting skills.

Despite grassroots advocacy by liberals, conservative resistance to gun control has deflated the issue to the point that it barely registers in the US presidential campaign.

Democrats have often championed gun reform -- but this time around even Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has emphasized her gun ownership in a country seemingly numbed to mass shootings.

"I thought March 27th (2023) would be the tipping point for gun violence and safety," said Justin Pearson, a local Democratic assemblyman.





That day, a shooter killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School, a Nashville elementary school.

"But I also thought we would do something as a country after Sandy Hook," Pearson added, referring to the massacre that claimed 26 lives, including 20 young children.

The Tennessee shooting was at "a private Christian conservative school, so I did have a modicum of hope that this would be the threshold for them to really do something different -- and they failed," he said.

- 'Make it worse' -

Shortly after the tragedy, Pearson and another Black elected official were expelled from the local legislature for protesting inside the institution -- an extremely rare punishment.

A third white Democrat, who also advocated for stricter gun laws, was spared.


Both expelled lawmakers were swiftly reelected, but the tragedy failed to produce any legislation restricting firearm access.

Instead, a new law passed this year allowed teachers to carry weapons.

"We did everything possible to prevent it," said Alexander, who, alongside Mary Joyce, leads the 'Covenant Moms,' a group of school mothers who mobilized after the shooting.

Their press conferences and meetings with elected officials, including the Tennessee governor, proved futile.

"We were warned they could make it worse," Joyce said, referring to threats to make teacher carrying arms mandatory.

She believes that her daughter, who lost part of her hearing during the attack, owes her survival to her teacher, who kept the children quiet in the classroom.


"Expecting teachers to confront a machine-gun-wielding assailant with a pistol is ridiculous, dangerous, and irresponsible," she said.

Their only consolation is that no school district has implemented the measure so far, said Alexander.

Despite the stubbornness of their elected representatives, the two women -- who come from conservative families and had little prior political involvement -- are determined to continue campaigning for gun control laws compatible with the US constitution's Second Amendment on the right to own a gun.


Speaking publicly on this "polarizing subject" feels "scary", Alexander admitted.

Joyce was more direct: "I don't want to get shot."

- 'Money and power' -


Changing gun laws, let alone attitudes to firearms, won't be easy.

"There are certain neighborhoods in and around Nashville where people are afraid to put up 'Harris for President' signs," said Carrie Russell of Vanderbilt University.

The political science professor explained that in Tennessee, as elsewhere, the Republican Party has secured a "super majority" through National Rifle Association funding and strategic redistricting.


"It comes down to money and power," she noted. "Unseating well-financed Republicans who control these power levers is nearly impossible."

Multiple local Republican lawmakers declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

"I feel like I'm doomed. I've been ready to throw in the towel for the last two years," said Clemmie Greenlee, founder of Nashville Peacemakers and Mothers Over Murder.

Since losing her adult son to gun violence in 2003, she has tirelessly supported dozens of bereaved families.

Tennessee maintains one of the nation's highest gun death rates, with firearms being the leading cause of death among youth.

The state's permissive laws allow 18-year-olds to purchase assault rifles three years before they can legally buy alcohol, often without background checks.

The state also lacks "red flag" laws to temporarily remove weapons from potentially dangerous individuals.

And at the federal level, for Greenlee, the situation is even more locked in.

"I don't expect anything from Kamala (Harris) or Donald (Trump)," she said. "Gun violence, they don't even talk about it."