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‘Plan C’ Documentarian Kept Her Cameras Rolling As Abortion Access Dried Up

Rich Juzwiak

Jezebel
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Image: Dinky Pictures/Sundance

June 24, 2022, started unremarkably for documentary filmmaker Tracy Droz Tragos (Abortion: Stories Women Tell, Rich Hill). She was dropping her child off at summer camp in the Berkshires and had to swing by CVS to grab a disposable camera, as the camp didn’t allow cell phones. And then she heard it on the radio: The Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade. She got to work, capturing footage of response on the ground, and most revealingly, shooting a doctor fielding calls from women whose scheduled abortions the ruling had canceled. In Tragos’ documentary Plan C, which premiered at Sundance this week, we see said doctor advise a patient about using abortion pills just days after Dobbs: “Since you are in a state where abortion is banned, you don’t want to put them in vaginally, because if something happened and you went into the hospital, we don’t want to have anything where they can tell you actually took medication.”

At that point, Tragos had already been filming for years, though she didn’t set out to make quite the historical chronicle that Plan C turned out to be. She started in 2018 when she met principal subject Francine Coeytaux, one of the co-founders of Plan C, the “public health meets creative campaign” that since 2015 has provided information for those seeking at-home, medical abortions. Initially, her doc was more of a portrait of those behind Plan C, but the repeated blows to abortion access in the United States over the past few years transformed her film as well as her process. “It [took] being scrappy and a more investigative reporter than I typically am in my work,” Tragos told Jezebel by Zoom on Tuesday, just hours after her doc premiered.

“It’s a tricky balance, because we wanted to get some of the hard facts out there,” she explained. “But we didn’t want this to be, you know, eating your broccoli. At the end of the day, we can strike the perfect balance of providing just enough information, being historically accurate—because we’re filming over four years when there’s all of these laws coming down—and the portraiture of the regular, ordinary people who step up.” Covid’s impact on the necessity of at-home abortion, Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court appointment, and the Supreme Court’s January 2021 ruling that abortion medication mifepristone must be retrieved in person (reversing the covid-era suspension of that rule) are all chronicled in Plan C, alongside profiles of Plan C, commentary from the likes of activist Loretta J. Ross and senior counsel of If/When/How Farah Diaz-Tello, and accounts from people who have had abortions or access denied.

Coeytaux notes early in the film—way before the doc gets to the impact of the overturning of Roe—that, “What’s legal and what’s not half the time has to just be proven by doing it and finding that in fact nobody can come after you, or does come after you because probably it wouldn’t stand.” Tragos related to the dubiousness of the work she captured her subjects performing: “I think it’s similar to the spirit of a documentary filmmaker, frankly, where it’s like, do you ask for permission all of the time, or do you beg for forgiveness?”

It’s a tricky balance, because we wanted to get some of the hard facts out there. But we didn’t want this to be, you know, eating your broccoli.

Tragos said she left out certain details regarding the supply chain of the abortion pills—she was less interested in presenting how the sausage gets made and more in showing viewers where to get the sausage. That said, those who have helped get abortion pills into the hands and mailboxes of people seeking abortion face more than legal ramifications—they could be harassed and targeted by anti-abortion activists. Some of the movie’s subjects openly worry about their children being affected. This created more trickiness for a filmmaker attempting to tell her subjects’ stories while not putting them in further danger. In Plan C, there’s a range of identity obscuring happening, from the withholding of last names, to strategically obscuring shots, to blurring of faces and distorting of voices.

“We filmed often with the intention that we weren’t going to show faces,” explained Tragos. “We did that as artfully as possible, but also not shying away from the fact that, yeah, we have to conceal these people. We are in the United States of America and yet we have to do this.” Some subjects were double blurred; some like Coeytaux appear completely unobscured. “We navigated that individually with the people in the film,” said Tragos. “And it’s on everyone’s own inner compass to decide how far they can go.” After screening a cut and hearing concerns regarding a particularly vulnerable subject, she removed shots of the subject’s blurred face, replacing them with shots of the subject’s hands. “It’s kind of costly to swap all that out after [editing], but at the end of the day, I don’t want to jeopardize this work,” said Tragos.

Speaking of cost, Plan C came at a considerable one for Tragos, who says the movie put her into debt. Her production company was able to secure a loan, as well as some funding from the Utah Film Center, but the project was largely self-funded. She worked with a “skeleton crew”—sometimes she shot without a designated sound person, just her and one of her two directors of photography (Emily Topper and Derek Howard). “There were definitely low points,” she said of the shoot. “But, you know, you get up again and there’s a bigger why. And frankly, I was inspired by the women in this film. I was inspired by how they came together.”

Crusading judge tests boundaries of free speech in Brazil


Judge Alexandre de Moraes stands as he is sworn in as the new head of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the government body that oversees elections, ahead of the Oct. 2 elections in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 16, 2022. De Moraes has been aggressively pursuing those suspected of undermining Brazil’s democracy, whether it's investigating former President Jair Bolsonaro, arresting protesters on slim evidence or banishing some people from social media after they were accused of spreading conspiracy theories.

 (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File) 


MAURICIO SAVARESE and JOSHUA GOODMAN
Wed, January 25, 2023 

SAO PAULO (AP) — With his Batman-like gown, athletic build and bald head, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes cuts an imposing figure.

To some, his actions from the bench are more intimidating. Whether it is investigating former President Jair Bolsonaro, arresting protesters on slim evidence or banishing his far-right supporters from social media, de Moraes has been aggressively pursuing those suspected of undermining Brazil’s fragile democracy.

In the wake of this month's attack on Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court by a mob of Bolsonaro supporters seeking to overturn the recent election, de Moraes' role as chief judicial power broker has expanded further. Some accuse de Moraes of overstepping in the name of protecting Brazilian democracy from the twin threats of political violence and disinformation. Others view his brash tactics as justified by extraordinary circumstances.

“Our democracy is in a situation of extreme risk, so it is understandable that some exceptional restrictions be put in place,” said Juliana Cesario Alvim, a human-rights professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais who has researched the Supreme Court’s decisions. “But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be criticism of how these cases are handled.”

Defining the boundaries of free speech isn’t just a conundrum in Brazil. In the U.S., some conservatives see content moderation of social media as censorship. Some liberals say that not enough is being done to root out hatred, violence and misinformation.

In Brazil, Bolsonaro loyalists who say de Moraes is muzzling expression have recently gained support — and the social media megaphone — of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, who resides in Brazil.

Unlike the U.S., where the First Amendment is an almost sacred text taught in every middle school, Brazil’s constitution is more unwieldy. Drafted in the aftermath of the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, it contains of a long list of aspirational goals and prohibitions against specific crimes such as racism and, more recently, homophobia. But freedom of speech is not absolute, according to Jane Reis, a federal judge and law professor in Rio de Janeiro.

Still, some of de Moraes' decisions have raised eyebrows — even among his defenders. In August, he authorized search warrants targeting business leaders after a local media outlet reported that they had a private group chat that included loose talk favoring a possible coup, but did not seem to show a coordinated effort to topple democracy.

The Supreme Court decided in 2019 to investigate fake news and threats against the top court’s justices, dramatically bolstering de Moraes’ authority to raid, censor and even jail antidemocratic voices.

The move immediately generated controversy and was unprecedented because it wasn't the result of a request from lawmakers or a government institution. The probe has been carried out with the court’s magistrates — and de Moraes as lead investigator — serving as accuser, victim and arbiter all at once, according to critics. The court denies that characterization, saying it would rule only on charges prosecutors present or against someone who has special legal protection, such as a sitting lawmaker.

Soon enough, de Moraes turned attention to Bolsonaro. In 2020, police raided the homes and froze the social media accounts of far-right supporters and YouTubers, Pro-Bolsonaro lawmakers argued for de Moraes' impeachment, claiming that he was biased against the far-right leader. Bolsonaro for months used his sizable social media presence to raise unfounded doubts about Brazil’s electronic voting system, pitting him against de Moraes as he assumed the presidency of the electoral authority.

Since Bolsonaro’s loss to leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in an October runoff, de Moraes' crusade has intensified. Three days after the mob stormed Brazil's capital, de Moraes ordered Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram to block the accounts of individuals accused of inciting or supporting attacks on Brazil’s democratic order. Failure to comply within two hours would result in a fine of 100,000 reais ($20,000) per day, according to the secret edict first revealed by Greenwald.

Among those targeted are Nikolas Ferreira, a 26-year-old YouTuber who received the most votes of 513 federal lawmaker candidates in the last election. Days after the assault, Ferreira falsely blamed the incoming administration for the violence.

“In the name of democracy, an unelected judge is silencing the elected representatives of the people on the internet,” Greenwald, who fashions himself a free-speech absolutist, said in an interview.

Telegram has declined to block Ferreira's account. Local media reported Wednesday, without specifying its sourcing, that the company sent a letter to de Moraes saying that the content-removal orders impede legitimate discussions, imply censorship and curb freedom of expression.

Ferreira thanked Telegram on his channel, the only public platform he can still use.

“They literally want to disappear me from the internet. Surreal,” he wrote.

Moraes on Wednesday fined Telegram 1.2 million reais ($237,000) for failure to comply, and gave the company five days to pay, according to the text of his decision.

Legal scholars point out that de Moraes isn’t acting on his own. His decisions, while sometimes taken swiftly in response to news reports, must eventually be ratified by the court's full bench. In the absence of any action from the prosecutor-general — a Bolsonaro appointee — de Moraes has been thrust by his colleagues to the front of their fight against far-right radicalism.

The legal experts say that the free speech debate distracts from the bigger concerns about overreach, pointing to a few de Moraes decisions not analyzed by the full bench, including arrests, and the origin of the fake news probe.

“The responses of the judiciary must be proportional to the attacks and should not be excessive," said Marcus Vinicius Furtado Coelho, a former president of Brazil’s bar association, who made clear he agrees with almost all of de Moraes’ decisions. Coelho added that the judiciary should arrest people only as “the last resort, and only necessary and after a fair trial.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court said in a statement that “every investigation is absolutely constitutional.” It added that de Moraes' rulings in the fake news probe were confirmed by the full court on 40 occasions, as many other investigations under his watch move forward with the court’s authorization.

Moraes, 54, appears to relish his image as an enforcer. Uniquely among the Supreme Court's justices, who hail mostly from other courts or prosecutors' offices, he initiated his legal career as a criminal defense attorney. Later, he took the reins as the security chief of Sao Paulo, the most populous state.

So far, many leftists and some moderates have seemed willing to turn a blind eye to any potential overreach so long as Bolsonaro’s movement is contained.

But they were blasting him as a “coup monger” when he was nominated to the Supreme Court six years ago, accusing him of plotting to impeach then-President Dilma Rousseff, a close Lula ally.

During the Jan. 8 invasion of government buildings, a door from de Moraes' office was ripped off and proudly displayed to an excited mob. Hours later, the justice was issuing arrest warrants for hundreds who partook in the mayhem.

“These people are not civilized. Just look what they did,” de Moraes said in a speech days later. “The Supreme Court, I am absolutely sure, with legal support, with our constitution, and the Federal Police, will punish everyone responsible.”

___

Goodman reported from Miami.

Biden Administration Paying Americans Thousands of Dollars to Upgrade Their Homes

William Dahl

Wed, January 25, 2023 

On Aug. 16, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, directing billions of dollars to Americans looking to upgrade their homes, businesses and cars.

One provision of the law allows Americans making less than $150,000 a year to claim a $7,500 tax credit for buying an electric car.

The law also provides $9 billion in rebates to help people electrify their home appliances and make their houses more energy-efficient. It’s also allowing Americans to claim a tax credit for installing heat pumps in their homes.

Altogether, the Inflation Reduction Act is showering $369 billion on clean energy programs and businesses throughout America.

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And clean energy investors already have something to celebrate. In the months since the act was signed into law, renewable energy companies like NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE: NEE) have handily outperformed the S&P 500.

The law is controversial, as is any law sweeping enough to decarbonize 40% of America’s economy over the next eight years as this law purports to do. But from an investing perspective, one thing is clear: History shows that clean energy catalysts on this level can give investors the chance to multiply their money many times over.

You might remember President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, which gave billions of dollars to clean energy companies and “created Tesla as we know it,” according to Bloomberg. Tesla shares have returned almost 10,000% since — even after their recent downturn. Other clean energy companies that received loans or grants like Brookfield Renewable Partners LP have returned well over 1,000%.

Potential benefits to solar investors are especially enticing. In the years after the 2009 stimulus package, America’s solar industry grew by 2,500% — and Biden’s clean energy bill is much larger than that.

In 2023, the White House plans to assist 7.5 million Americans in putting solar panels on their rooftops — and that could be a major opening for YouSolar, a startup that helps its customers transition to the electric grid painlessly and seamlessly.

As Bloomberg has pointed out, the global cost to decarbonize power grids could amount to more than $28 trillion. That’s a big deal for one company that could bring countless consumers toward an all-electric life.

© 2023 Benzinga.com

Tiny Texas County Doubles Wealth In Two Years With Revolutionary Technology

William Dahl
Wed, January 25, 2023


You probably haven’t heard of Coke County, Texas. Out of thousands of counties in America, it’s one of the smallest, with just 3,300 residents.

But it enjoyed the biggest economic boom of any county from 2019 to 2021, according to an analysis from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In those two years, Coke County’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 83%, from $128 million to $235 million.

The growth is being credited to a surge in wind farm construction. New wind farms are paying landowners in Coke County annual royalties of up to $10,000 while creating jobs and lowering energy costs. These twin economic benefits have helped the county’s GDP per capita rise from $39,000 a year to $71,000. The explosion in wealth has led one county judge to describe the locals as “tickled pink about this.”

But it’s not just Coke County. Of the 10 American counties with the biggest spikes in GDP from 2019 to 2021, seven have seen major wind farm construction in that time frame.

For now, Coke County must decide how to spend the annual payments of $787,000 it’s receiving from the Aviator Wind Farm over the next decade. An official says the money will be spent on roads, bridges, senior centers and other projects benefiting the public.

What’s striking is that this boom, which is already transforming dozens of U.S. counties economically, started well before President Joe Biden signed the $369 billion clean energy stimulus package into law last August. The law is lavishing tens of billions of dollars on wind and solar energy projects through tax credits or direct spending.

In particular, the law extends a tax credit for solar power production facilities, providing they begin construction before January 2025. This will encourage a wave of new solar power manufacturing facilities throughout America — especially when paired with the $8 billion the federal government is spending to help households install solar panels.

Between these tax credits, $8 billion in direct spending and Biden’s order to decarbonize hundreds of thousands of buildings owned by the federal government, it’s clear that millions of buildings in America will be installing solar panels in the next few years.

One way to play this trend is through the startup YouSolar, which is pioneering an advanced solar nano-grid to allow customers to go solar with minimal inconvenience or disruption. The company’s fully-integrated power grid will allow households to retain power even amid blackouts of the conventional power grid.

For now, YouSolar mainly serves high-income households in Northern California. But that could quickly change as massive incentives for solar power generation transform households, businesses and government agencies throughout America.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga.com

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

FTX wants to ask Sam Bankman-Fried's parents and brother if they received any money from the crypto exchange

Phil Rosen
Thu, January 26, 2023 

Sam Bankman-FriedPhoto by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Court documents show FTX aims to question Sam Bankman-Fried's parents and brother about their personal wealth, per Bloomberg.

The family should provide financial documents about any money they may have received from the company, FTX lawyers said.

The bankruptcy judge still has to approve the request before FTX lawyers can move forward.

FTX wants to question Sam Bankman-Fried's family members about whether they received any funds from the bankrupt crypto exchange, court filings show, per Bloomberg.

As part of the company's mission to recover funds that could be used to pay back creditors, FTX lawyers said in the filing that Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, as well as brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried, should answer questions under oath and also provide financial documents about their personal wealth.

Before FTX can move forward with any questioning, US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey must approve the request.

Federal prosecutors have charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX empire, with fraud amid allegations that FTX transferred billions of dollars in clients' funds to prop up his Alameda Research trading arm. He has pleaded not guilty.

Both of Bankman-Fried's parents have been involved with the company. Joseph Bankman, a Stanford law professor, reportedly gave tax advice to FTX staffers and helped recruit the company's lawyers.

Barbara Fried is said to have founded a political action committee that took money from FTX. Like her husband, she is also a law professor at Stanford.

In addition, Reuters reported in November that a $16.4 million house in the Bahamas listed Bankman-Fried's parents as signatories and was described in property records as a "vacation home." He later said it was actually meant to be company property.

As for Gabriel Bankman-Fried, he founded a nonprofit focused on pandemics that lobbied politicians, and a $3.28 million house in Washington DC that it bought last year has just been put on the market.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried remains under house arrest at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California, as he awaits trial.

FTX opposes new bankruptcy investigation as it probes Bankman-Fried connections




Thu, January 26, 2023 
By Noele Illien, Tom Wilson and Dietrich Knauth

ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - FTX has objected to a U.S. Department of Justice request for an independent investigation into the once-prominent crypto exchange's collapse, saying it is already conducting a wide-ranging probe that includes family members of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.FTX said in a court filing in Wilmington, Delaware, late on Wednesday that the DOJ's proposed review would only add cost and delay to its bankruptcy case. FTX acknowledged "fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, misconduct, mismanagement, and irregularity" in its past conduct, but said that its previous wrongdoing is already being probed by the company's new management, its creditors and law enforcement agencies.

As part of its own investigation, FTX asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey, who is overseeing its Chapter 11 proceedings, to help it secure documents from Bankman-Fried, members of his family and other insiders with information about FTX transactions that used "misappropriated and stolen" funds. These transactions, it said, include a $16.7 million Bahamian real estate purchase under the name of Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried.

FTX is also seeking information about political donations connected to Bankman-Fried, asking wide-ranging questions about Mind the Gap, a political action committee founded by Barbara Fried, and Guarding Against Pandemics, an advocacy organization founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried. FTX said Guarding Against Pandemics' multimillion-dollar Washington, D.C., headquarters was purchased with misappropriated funds.

Bankman-Fried and members of his family could not immediately be reached for comment.

A spokesperson for Mind the Gap said it did not receive direct contributions from Sam Bankman-Fried, although Bankman-Fried made donations to some political causes it recommended to its donor network.

FTX, once among the world's top crypto exchanges, shook the sector in November by filing for bankruptcy, leaving an estimated 9 million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars.

The U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog has called for an independent investigation into its collapse, a request that received backing from a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.

FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, who worked with court-appointed examiners while leading Enron Corp and Residential Capital through bankruptcy, is prepared to testify that examiners in those two cases cost a combined $150 million and provided "minimal" benefits to creditors, FTX said.

FTX's official committee of creditors joined the company in opposing the appointment of an examiner.

FTX also on Wednesday night filed a new list of creditors in bankruptcy court, which included financial watchdogs and government agencies from the United States, Japan and Switzerland, as well as companies including Airbnb Inc and crypto giant Binance.

Airbnb and Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are among those on the new list of creditors. It did not give details of the nature or amount of monies owed.

FTX said on Thursday that the list was meant to ensure the broadest possible outreach to potential stakeholders in its bankruptcy, and that FTX does not necessarily owe money to each name on the creditor list.

FTX said last year it owed its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion. Dorsey in January allowed FTX to keep secret the names of 9 million of its individual customers for three months.

Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to pay debts incurred by his crypto-focused hedge fund, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. He is scheduled to face trial in October.

(Reporting by Noele Illien in Zurich, Tom Wilson in London and Dietrich Knauth in New York; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Mother and Brother Not Cooperating With Financial Probe, FTX Lawyers Say

Jack Schickler
Thu, January 26, 2023 at 10:22 AM MST·2 min read

At least some of Sam Bankman-Fried's immediate family aren't cooperating with the probe into the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and should be cross-questioned in court, the company’s lawyers have said in a legal filing made Wednesday.

The FTX founder’s brother, mother and father were his “advisors,” and should be subpoenaed alongside former company executives as the company’s new management seeks to find out what happened to allegedly misappropriated funds, the filing said.

“The Debtors and their advisors have been working tirelessly and nonstop over the last 70 plus days … to implement controls, recover and protect estate assets,” said the legal filing made jointly by FTX and creditor representatives. “Key questions remain, however, concerning numerous aspects of the Debtors’ finances and transactions," the filing continued.

FTX wants to know who received potentially stolen funds from FTX, and what communications they had with its executives – but alleges that some potential witnesses aren't playing ball despite requests to cooperate voluntarily.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, “has ignored the requests altogether,” the attorneys say, while “the debtors have not received meaningful engagement or any response from [former chief engineer Nishad] Singh or Mr. Gabriel Bankman-Fried,” Sam’s brother.

Discussions with lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried's father, Joseph Bankman, are "ongoing" and were expected to lead to a consensual outcome, the filing said.

FTX, known in bankruptcy proceedings as the Debtor, alleges that Gabriel Bankman-Fried’s lobbying organization, Guarding Against Pandemics, “purchased a multimillion-dollar property a few blocks from the United States Capital [sic], which the debtors believe was purchased using misappropriated customer funds.”

Fried’s mother's political action committee, Mind the Gap, also allegedly received donations from Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX staffers, and both parents “resided in a $16.4 million [Bahamas] house titled in their names, despite understanding that the house was ‘intended to be the company’s property’,” the filing said.

Sam Bankman-Fried should also be subpoenaed by the court, the filing said, as should FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, chief executive of trading firm Alameda Research, who, the filing said, “expressly declined to provide the requested information.”

The request will be discussed at a Feb. 8 hearing in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware. A spokesperson for Sam Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AMLO EGO TRIP

Mexico’s Maya Train Threatens Artifacts and Pristine Environments

Angely Mercado
Wed, January 25, 2023 at 11:21 AM MST·4 min read

A bulldozer clears an area of forest that will be the line of the Maya Train in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Tuesday, August. 2, 2022.

Mexico’s government is building a new train project that could have big economic benefits, but the tracks are going to be laid at the expense of fragile ecosystems and indigenous artifacts, alarming the country’s environmentalists.

The train system, which is known as Tren Maya (or Maya Train), will cut through pristine environments that have barely changed in hundreds of years, Reuters reports. The more than 900 miles of tracks are going to carry both electric and diesel trains around the Yucatán Peninsula, connecting tourist hotspots like Cancún to the ancient Maya temples of Palenque and Chichen Itza.

The goal for this project is to bring tourism money to poorer towns across the peninsula, creating what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) described as opportunities for the region. “It will bring education, health and housing actions to the communities where the train passes,” AMLO said in a press release last year. “It will bring infrastructure, culture, sports, internet connectivity and economic development.”

But archaeologists and conservationists worry that those economic wins come at too high a cost for the Yucatán. Section 5, one of the routes in the proposed train system that will connect Cancún and Tulum, will come dangerously close to cenotes, Bloomberg reported. These are the beautiful, natural water-filled caverns with an opening in the ceiling. You’ve probably seen images of people swimming around in these lake caves on travel websites. Some experts worry that the roofs of the cenotes are not strong enough to withstand the weight of the trains that will travel over them or train rumbling that will come too close.

Mexican President, AMLO, during a 2022 presentation on the Maya Train project.

And despite being named in honor of the Maya people who have inhabited the peninsula for more than thousands of years, hurting the cenotes will hurt the indigenous people who still live there. The train route will cut through a town called Vida y Esperanza (life and hope), disrupting the daily routine in the area. The Maya people in that town rely on the water from the cenotes for everyday needs like bathing, the Associated Press reported.

The train’s construction might also damage pre-Hispanic relics. Construction crews working on the project have uncovered various Maya artifacts, like a tomb with ornate offerings and Maya cottages, the Washington Post reported. Archaeologists working on assessments since 2020 have reportedly been given unreasonable deadlines. In one stretch of the train construction, officials from the tourism development agency gave experts less than a month to excavate 37 miles of jungle. “They’re trying to do it overnight,” Antonio Benavides, an archaeologist who oversees the assessment in the state of Campeche, told the Washington Post. “There’s been no planning.”

The construction has also sparked conservation concerns. The Yucatán jaguar’s numbers have increased in recent years, a sign that conservation efforts in the region have worked, the New York Times reported. But experts worry that the train’s construction will reverse the progress made for the species in the region. The train route will also be close to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, according to Reuters. The region is the largest forest reserve in the country and a “Mixed World Heritage Site,” according to UNESCO.

The jungle is also home to Mexico’s jaguars. The iconic big cats were important to the Maya empire and were worshiped as deities for thousands of years. Deforestation and urban development shrank their hunting range, and many were killed by hunters after European colonialism reached the Americas. Their numbers increased from a little over 4,000 jaguars in 2010 to 4,766 in 2018. The government agreed to create wildlife passes to allow animals to move around safely and to expand the reserve as a solution for having the train run so close to the area, the New York Times reported.

Since construction began in 2020, there’s been major pushback. In 2020, opponents of the train project were able to get a temporary injunction against the project, pausing it for a bit. But the government resumed construction in 2021, per the New York Times. Other elected officials have tried to bring in more outside expert judgement on the project. Mexican official Kenia López Rabadán sent a letter to Frédéric Vacheron, a UNESCO representative in Mexico, asking the agency to intervene in the project, El Universal reported. In a press conference last year, she acknowledged the importance of economic development in the region, but not at the expense of the peninsula’s archaeological history or ecological wellbeing. The train is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, according to Reuters.

Tourism in general has negative impacts on ecosystems all over the world. Unlike in Mexico, elected officials in other popular vacation destinations around the world are setting up quotas to protect the local environment. In hopes of combatting huge crowds and the litter they leave behind, Venice’s mayor announced an entrance fee for tourists starting this year.

The island of Koh Tao, which is in the Gulf of Thailand, has also enacted a visiting fee for tourists. Those who wish to visit the island will pay the equivalent of about 55 cents in U.S. dollars, which will go to waste management and conservation initiatives, the New York Times reported.

Gizmodo

INTERSECTIONALITY
'There'd be no climate crisis if it wasn't for racism,' Jane Fonda claims on talk show


by ZACHARY ROGERS | The National Desk

Thursday, January 26th 2023




In this video grab issued Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021, by NBC, Jane Fonda accepts the Cecil B. deMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards. (NBC via AP)


WASHINGTON (TND) — Saying "everything’s connected," actress Jane Fonda blamed the "climate crisis" on "racism" during an appearance on "The Kelly Clarson Show" this week.

Fonda was on the talk show to promote her new movie "80 for Brady." She appeared alongside her new movie's co-stars: Sally Field, Lily Yomlin and Rita Moreno.

All four discussed what got them into social activism, and Fonda recalled the Vietnam War. Fonda was given the infamous nickname "Hanoi Jane" after she posed for a photo atop an anti-aircraft gun when she visited North Vietnam in 1972.
For me, it was learning about the Vietnam War,” Fonda recalled. “And when I really understood what that was about, I couldn’t not do anything except try to join the movement to stop it."

The show's host, American singer/songwriter Kelly Clarkson, then asked Fonda how she branched out from anti-Vietnam war activism to other causes. The famous actress responded by saying "everything's connected."

Well, you know, you can take anything... sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia... whatever... the war,” Fonda responded. “And if you really get into it, and study it and learn about it and the history of it and everything’s connected. There’d be no climate crisis if it wasn’t for racism.”

Rita Moreno asked Fonda to clarify what she meant. Fonda answered by claiming "they," as in the powers that be, pollute poorer countries and areas because those people don't fight back as hard as well-off people and communities.

Where would they put the s**t? Where would they put the poison and the pollution?" Fonda asked in response. "They’re not gonna put it in Bel Air. They’ve got to find some place where poor people or indigenous people or people of color are living. Put it there. They can’t fight back. And that’s why a big part of the climate movement now has to do with climate justice."

Fonda has been arrested multiple times for her roles in climate protests. She was famously arrested in October 2019 at a climate change rally on the Capitol steps in Washington D.C. and was charged with "crowding, obstructing or incommoding"

In September 2022, Fonda publicly announced she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and had started chemotherapy treatments. She later announced that, thanks to her treatments, her cancer was in remission.

Fonda is a two-time Academy Award Winner for her roles in 1971's "Klute" and 1978's "Coming Home."

She's also famously known for her roles in 1977's "Fun With Dick and Jane" and 1968's "Barbarella."

Jane Fonda is a celebrated actress and has been awarded with several accolades over her career. Her newest film, "80 for Brady," hits theaters on February 3.

New York Rep. George Santos and Drag Race Legend Trixie Mattel Battle It Out on Twitter

Virginia Chamlee
Tue, 24 January 2023 

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 10: Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is seen outside a House Republican Conference meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images); NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 17: Drag queen Trixie Mattel attends "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" Meet The Queens on January 17, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images)More

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty; Bennett Raglin/Getty

Republican Rep. George Santos has waded into a back-and-forth with musician and RuPaul's Drag Race alum Trixie Mattel, with the drag star shading the controversial lawmaker after he mocked those impersonating him.

"I have now been enshrined in late night TV history with all these impersonations, but they are all TERRIBLE so far," Santos wrote on Twitter Monday. "Jon Lovitz is supposed to be one of the greatest comedians of all time and that was embarrassing— for him not me! These comedians need to step their game up."

Mattel, who won season three of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, responded with: "Maybe the source material was weak."


Santos then responded: "Clearly you know all about weak acting skills @trixiemattel," adding a gif of the drag queen impersonating RuPaul Charles on her season of All Stars, for which she was nearly eliminated from the competition.

Mattel then brought up Santos' own past history of drag, writing: "I am not an actor! I was young and I had fun at a festival!"

That's the same line Santos used when footage of him donning drag in Brazil recently surfaced. While the New York congressman admitted the footage was of him, he denied being a "drag queen," telling reporters: "No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life."


Santos got the last word in the snarky Twitter exchange, telling Mattel, "It's all good! I won my race against the fan favorite too." (Mattel beat competitor Kennedy Davenport in season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars; Santos beat Democrat Robert Zimmerman in a blue-leaning district.)

RELATED: Fact-Checking the George Santos Claims: From Goldman Sachs Employee to College 'Volleyball Star'

Santos — who was elected in November to represent New York's 3rd Congressional District— has been the subject of numerous headlines after The New York Times found that many the claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.

Santos has since admitted he lied about some things, such as working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously asserted (he never worked at either), and attending Baruch College and New York University (he attended neither).

And while the Republican admitted that he had "embellished" some portions of his resume, more mysteries have lingered, like the source of his income, which has seemingly grown by hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars in recent years.

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Santos is currently the subject of probes by both the Nassau County District Attorney's Office and federal investigators who have opened an inquiry into his financial disclosures.

Santos has said he won't resign from office, even as some Republicans in Congress and in his own district have called on him to do so.

Earlier this month, a group of Nassau County, New York, Republicans called on Santos to resign in a press conference, with chairman Joseph Cairo telling reporters: "Today, on behalf of the Nassau County Republican Committee, I am calling for his immediate resignation. George Santos' campaign last year, 2022, was a campaign of deceit, lies, fabrication."

Cairo continued: "He deceived voters. His lies were not mere fibs. He disgraced the House of Representatives … He's not welcome here at Republican headquarters."

Nvidia CEO says AI will need regulation, social norms

Supantha Mukherjee
Tue, 24 January 2023

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, shows the Drive Pegasus robotaxi AI computer a

By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on Tuesday said that the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence will create powerful tools that require legal regulation and social norms that have yet to be worked out.

Huang is one of the most prominent figures in artificial intelligence because Nvidia's chips are widely used in the field, including in a supercomputer that Microsoft Corp built for startup OpenAI, in which Microsoft said Monday it was making a multibillion-dollar investment.

Huang was speaking at an event in Stockholm, where officials said Tuesday they were upgrading Sweden's fastest supercomputer using tools from Nvidia to, among other things, develop what is known as a large language model that will be fluent in Swedish.

"Remember, if you take a step back and think about all of the things in life that are either convenient, enabling or wonderful for society, it also has probably some potential harm," Huang said.

Lawmakers such as Ted Lieu, a Democratic from California in the U.S. House of Representatives, have called for the creation of a U.S. federal agency that would regulate AI. In an opinion piece in the New York Times on Monday, Lieu argued that systems such as facial recognition used by law enforcement agencies possibly can misidentify innocent people from minority groups.

Huang said engineering standards bodies would need to establish standards for building safe AI systems, similar to how medical bodies set rules for the safe practice of medicine. But he also said laws and social norms would play a key role for AI.

"What is the social norm for using it? What the legal norms (are) for using it have to be developed," Huang said. "Everything is evolving right now. The fact that we're all talking about it puts us in a much better place to eventually end up at a good place."

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; writing by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Stephen Coates)

UK

‘Legal gangsters’ who try to silence critics exposing wrongdoing ‘should face £1m fines’

Amy Gibbons
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Bob Seely says firms offering strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps) 'are becoming a fifth column' - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

Expensive law firms that threaten free speech by using “legal gangsterism” to silence critics should face £1 million punishments, an MP has warned.

Bob Seely, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, tabled proposals to curb the use of “noxious” lawsuits by “bad actors” to intimidate journalists and campaigners.

Firms that engage in strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps), utilised by the "enemies of law-governed states", are offering a "one-stop shop to spy, to snoop, to smear and to sue", he said.

Slapps usually involve wealthy elites using legal action to try to stop journalists or campaigners from exposing wrongdoing under defamation and privacy laws.

Mr Seely said the legal industry is "justifiably a prized part of London and our soft power". However, he claimed the "Slapps culture" undermines that "great tradition".

He suggested lawyers who engage in these "appalling" actions could be hit with a £1 million penalty to quickly "send this industry packing".

'Fifth column'

"In terms of our free media, freedom of speech, these high-priced law firms - through naivety, poor judgement or simple greed - are becoming a fifth column," he said.

The Government announced proposed reforms in July 2022 to give the courts new powers to throw out meritless claims quicker and put a cap on costs. However, they have to yet to make progress in Parliament.

Mr Seely introduced his own proposals via his Defamation, Privacy, Freedom of Expression, Data Protection, Legal Services and Private Investigators Bill in the Commons on Tuesday.

"Firms who offer Slapps have made themselves wealthy, effectively attacking a free media, freedom of speech and legitimate corporate due diligence," he told MPs.

"I think this, as a business model, is a form of legalised intimidation - effectively legal gangsterism."

Mr Seely warned that the Government itself is being "cowed" by Slapps, with investigators including the Serious Fraud Office and National Crime Agency sometimes threatened with judicial review.

He said his Bill would "limit the financial and psychological costs of a meritless Slapps claim which can be imposed on a defendant", introduce sanctions against those who "abuse our courts" and dismiss such claims before costs accrued.

"If we fine lawyers engaged in Slapps - dare I call them slappers? - if we fine them £1 million every time a slapper brought in a Slapp, I think we would be able to send this industry packing within a very short period," he said.

Lebanon judge probing Beirut blast charges top prosecutor


Tue, 24 January 2023 


Lebanon's judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast, has charged Lebanon's top prosecutor and seven others with probable intent to murder, arson and other crimes, an official said Tuesday.

Bitar had sparked surprise in Lebanon a day before when he charged eight top security and judicial officials, reviving a probe that was suspended for over a year amid vehement political and legal pushback.

It emerged on Tuesday from a judicial source who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity that Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat was among those charged, joining those who had already been announced on Monday including the head of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, and State Security agency chief Tony Saliba.

The Beirut port blast of August 4, 2020 -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- destroyed most of Beirut port and swathes of the capital, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said the mega-explosion was sparked by a fire in a portside warehouse, where a vast stockpile of the volatile industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

Relatives of the dead have been holding monthly vigils, seeking justice and accountability over the disaster, which they blame on an entrenched ruling class widely seen as inept and corrupt.

A US State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that "we support and urge Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut".

- 'Like he doesn't exist' -

Lebanese state institutions have been reluctant to cooperate with the probe, which began the same month as the explosion.

The prosecution service rejected the resumption of the probe, according to a document seen by AFP Tuesday.

"We were only informed of Bitar's decision through the media," Oueidat, the top prosecutor, told AFP.

"Since he considers that the general prosecution doesn't exist, we will also act like he doesn't exist."

The arm-wrestling between Oueidat and Bitar is the latest of crisis-torn Lebanon's mounting woes, as the value of the national currency hit a new record low against the US dollar on Tuesday.

Protesters blocked roads in Beirut and other regions in the evening to voice anger over the weakened Lebanese pound and deteriorating living conditions, the state National News Agency reported.

Bitar's probe has been met with strong opposition from government figures and the powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, which has accused him of political bias.

Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally Amal called for demonstrations to demand his dismissal in October 2021, when a gun battle broke out at a Beirut rally and seven people were killed.

"Port investigation: Tarek Bitar has gone mad," ran the headline of the pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar, which also accused him of acting "on the basis of American orders and with European judicial support".

Bitar last week met with two French magistrates, who came to Beirut as part of the country's own investigation into the explosion that killed and injured French nationals.

- Delays and pushback -

The judge was forced to suspend his probe for more than a year after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

Bitar now plans to question 14 suspects next month, including five officials whom he indicted earlier -- among them ex-prime minister Hassan Diab and former ministers.

According to the unnamed judicial official, Oueidat had in 2019 overseen a security services investigation into cracks in the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

In February 2021, Bitar's predecessor as lead judge was removed from the case after he had charged several high-level politicians.

The interior ministry has also failed to execute arrest warrants issued by Bitar, further undermining his quest for accountability.

Rights group Amnesty International charged Monday that "Lebanese authorities have shamelessly and systematically obstructed the pursuit of justice" and called on them to "ensure that the domestic investigation can proceed without political interference".

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