It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, March 04, 2022
A mysterious new substance may have been found in the Earth’s core
Joshua Hawkins Thu, March 3, 2022,
There’s a lot that we don’t know about the Earth, like how was life on Earth created? But we also don’t know a lot about the makeup of the planet itself, like how old the Earth’s core is. A new study may turn everything we think we know about the Earth’s inner core on its head. Now researchers say the Earth’s core isn’t a solid compressed ball of iron alloy. But, it also isn’t a completely liquid core either. Instead, the new study proposes that the Earth’s inner core is a mushy mixture of elements such as silicon, carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. This new paper suggests the Earth’s inner core is a mushy mix of elements
Earth's inner core and outer core
The researchers published the paper in the journal Nature on February 9, and it offers an interesting look into the core of our planet. Initially, scientists believed the Earth’s inner core was composed of a highly compressed ball of solid iron alloy. However, the findings showcased in the paper seem to point towards something different.
First, the researchers note that understanding the Earth’s inner core is difficult for several reasons. Chief among these is the fact that seismological observations have shown a complicated structure that seems to make little sense. One of the currently unresolved problems with understanding the Earth’s core is that it features a low shear-wave velocity that is unmatched by the sound velocities found in iron and iron alloys. This has led the researchers to believe that the core also includes light elements that lend themselves to a superionic state, rather than a solid state. The researchers used computer simulations to try to understand what the core is made of. “Using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, we find that hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon in hexagonal close-packed iron transform to a superionic state under the inner core conditions, showing high diffusion coefficients like a liquid,” the paper reads.
Models and more studies
Earth in space
Another study conducted in 2021 seems to suggest the same thing. In that study, researchers sent seismic waves through the core of the planet. Those waves, called shears, found that the Earth’s inner core isn’t completely solid iron. Instead, it’s more of a mushy substance.
Of course, there’s no real way to tell exactly what the Earth’s inner core is without seeing it for ourselves. Unfortunately, sending a probe that deep into the Earth is impossible. That’s why the researchers focused on computer simulations for their latest study. The results from those simulations showed that the Earth’s inner core may instead consist of hardened iron. This superionic alloy would then allow other elements to slosh around it. Essentially, the core would feature both solid and liquid states, making it even more complicated than we previously imagined.
If these theories prove true, it could help us understand a lot about why the Earth’s core seems to change constantly. The model could shed light on how the planet generates its magnetic field, too. Of course, the scientists will need to prove the model first. And that means waiting for the perfect moment to run more experiments and test their outcomes. For now, it is interesting at least, to think of the Earth’s inner core sloshing around a latticework of superionic alloy. A constant current of molten liquid moving within our planet.
Opioid crisis: Congress and Biden suggest radical change to War on Drugs approach
The U.S. drug overdose crisis continues unabated, driven by the coronavirus pandemic and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
A new report from the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, a bipartisan working group led by Rep. David Trone (D-MD) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), argued that the U.S. should shift from a War on Drugs-style focus on supply to a treatment-style focus on demand.
“U.S. and Mexican efforts can disrupt the flow of synthetic opioids across U.S. borders, but real progress can come only by pairing illicit synthetic opioid supply disruption with decreasing the domestic U.S. demand for these drugs,” the report stated.
Illegally-trafficked fentanyl — a synthetic opioid similar to the prescription narcotic morphine but 50-100 times more powerful — is now the primary driver of the opioid crisis, accounting for roughly two-thirds of overdose deaths each day.
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Biden laid out several steps towards addressing both demand and supply: "There is so much we can do: increase funding for prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery," Biden said. "Get rid of outdated rules that stop doctors from prescribing treatments. And stop the flow of illicit drugs by working with state and local law enforcement to go after traffickers. If you’re suffering from addiction, know you are not alone. I believe in recovery, and I celebrate the 23 million Americans in recovery."
The congressional commission's recommendations include expanding access to medication therapies and opioid use disorder (OUD) medication, resources for those in and out of incarceration, fentanyl test strips, and other novel harm reduction methods.
“The commission does take a very strong look at demand reduction in how to go about finding ways to reduce demand,” Bryce Pardo, an associate director of the RAND Corporation's Drug Policy Research Center and the principal investigator of the report, told Yahoo Finance. “There are things the commission recognizes that need to be done beyond just the simple: ‘We need to figure out where this is coming from and stop the flow.’”
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol House Chamber on March 1, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images)
Leo Beletsky, a professor who studies the impact of laws and their enforcement on public health at Northeastern University, explained that America's demand for illicitly-manufactured opioids is indicative of a larger issue of a broken health care system, substance use treatment, and social support systems.
“Without addressing these root causes, focus on drug supply doesn’t address the addiction and overdose crisis — it actually makes it worse," Beletsky told Yahoo Finance.
'This is a national emergency'
The government focus on drug supply began with the "War on Drugs," which President Richard Nixon declared in mid-1971.
In the following decades, non-violent drug-related incarcerations increased substantially from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 by 1997.
As the Council on Foreign Relations noted, however, "this approach has been widely criticized for failing to keep people from cycling in and out of prison and for disproportionately targeting Black Americans."
The U.S. opioid crisis was initially driven by prescription opioids in the mid-90s and 2000s, led by the widespread use of Oxycontin, followed by the rise of deadly synthetic opioids in the last decade or so.
Since 1999, nearly 1 million people have fatally overdosed — a number that is “more people than we’ve lost in all the battles in America in our wars, including the Civil War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq, World War I, World War II," Rep. Trone, who lost his 24-year-old nephew to a fentanyl overdose in 2016, told Yahoo Finance. "Unbelievable the number of deaths have happened from overdoses."
Synthetic opioids are the leading driver of overdose deaths. (Chart: CDC)
For the 12-month period ending September 2021, an estimated 104,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. Roughly 65% of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Ways to reduce demand for opioids include expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) — which uses medications like buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone in conjunction with other interventions — as well as increasing the availability of naloxone to reverse overdoses and removing the X waiver, which requires specific training in order to be allowed to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to help those with opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Trone stated that the commission is entirely in agreement that MAT is “a winner” and should be expanded further. During the State of the Union, Biden likely was referring to the X waiver when he mentioned "outdated rules."
Trone added that “we’ve got to focus heavily on elevating the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy to a Cabinet-level position. This is a national emergency and we need one voice at the very top to coordinate everybody, all agencies. That’s really crucial, and we’ve got to work on mental health, because if we don’t tie in mental health to this, we are never, ever going to be successful.”
'Not much we can do in Mexico'
Part of what makes fentanyl — which was initially created as a prescription painkiller — desirable for some is how manufacturers are able to increase its potency.
But that comes at a cost with its effects on the human body.
“With fentanyl in particular, what creates the overdose crisis is the combination of the drug’s potency, which overwhelms the system and then causes respiratory arrest, but also the physiological effects of fentanyl that are specific to that drug causing chest wall rigidity, the ability of which can cross the blood to the brain very, very quickly,” Pardo said. “You have very few minutes to reverse an overdose, whereas with heroin you have a lot more time. These kinds of things are more critical now in today’s day and age.”
How synthetic opioids like fentanyl makes their way into the United States. (Chart: Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking)
Initially, fentanyl was shipped directly to the United States after Chinese producers created the drug in labs. As Chinese authorities became more stringent on fentanyl production, the producers would slightly alter their formulas, creating fentanyl “analogues” that essentially created a game of ‘Whack-a-Mole’ for regulators. In May 2019, however, China began controlling all fentanyl-related substances, which curbed much of the production of fentanyl-like substances.
Unfortunately, this didn’t stop fentanyl manufacturers in China entirely. Instead, they began using non-fentanyl synthetic opioids and turned to Mexico to distribute drugs.
“The Chinese chemical manufacturers are now just offering precursor chemicals to drug trafficking organizations or anybody who is interested in manufacturing fentanyl,” Pardo said. “They’re easy to find on social media platforms or other kinds of [business-to-business] networks. Social media is a platform that is the wild west. People are putting up listings for retail purposes. There are pictures on Snapchat where you can easily obtain drugs on those platforms, as well as other platforms we looked at. Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, where you do find these other listings for precursor chemicals and bulk amounts of precursor chemicals that are being sold, with the intention of synthetic opioid manufacturing by some criminal actors in Canada or Mexico or where have you.”
There are many ways fentanyl flows into the U.S. (Chart: Government Accountability Office)
Mexican drug cartels can illegally traffic drug precursor chemicals into the United States through various ways such as passenger boat, cargo ship, train, commercial plane, drone, mail carrier, and vehicle border crossings. These routes have been the primary sources of illicit fentanyl in the U.S. since 2019, according to the report.
“There’s not much we can do in Mexico,” Trone said. “The Mexican government has a lot of great people that would love to make a difference, but they’ve chosen that it’s not in their best interest given the level of violence the cartels have brought against people in Mexico. The level of corruption has taken many people. They’re now working for the cartels and not for the government. There’s not a lot we could do right now in Mexico, unfortunately, given the position they’ve taken. It kind of comes back down to: What are we going to do to slow the demand down?”
Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.
TELL CP TO BARGAIN FAIRLY Top Fertilizer Maker Nutrien Asks Canada to Halt Rail Strike
Jen Skerritt Thu, March 3, 2022,
(Bloomberg) -- Nutrien Ltd., the world’s biggest crop-nutrient producer, wants the Canadian government to stop a strike at one of the nation’s largest railways because the disruption could potentially lead to smaller harvests.
About 3,000 workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. voted in favor of going on strike March 16 if a collective bargaining agreement isn’t reached, according to their union. That would impact Nutrien’s ability to move potash, nitrogen and other crop chemicals to retail locations across Canada just ahead of spring planting, the company said in an email.
Without such products, harvests could be reduced when food prices are soaring. The fertilizer supply chain is still “reeling” from impacts of everything from Covid-19 to sanctions on Belarus and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Nutrien said. Crop nutrient prices are at all-time highs amid concerns about shortfalls.
“The global food supply is already stretched and cannot afford further negative impacts at this time,” the company said Wednesday in a statement. “We would be very disappointed to see a labor dispute have such a significant impact on global agricultural supply chains, and consequently, we would hope that the Canadian government will consider intervening to avert another transportation crisis.”
A disruption in rail service will have “serious implications” as global food security concerns are heightened and there is strong demand for Canadian potash, said Natashia Stinka, spokeswoman for Canpotex, a joint venture that markets sales outside North America for Nutrien and Mosaic Co.
“Our overseas partners are counting on Canpotex to deliver the potash they need to sustain global food production,” Stinka said Thursday. “We are doing what we can, but reliable rail service is vital.”
CPR LATEST QUARTERLY RESULTS Q4
2021
Latest Quarterly Results (CAD $)Q4 2021
% Change
Total Revenues ($M) $2,040 1% Operating Ratio (%) 59.2% +530 bps Adjusted Operating Ratio (%)(1) 57.5% +360 bps Operating Income ($M) $832 -10% Adjusted Operating Income ($M)(1) $868 -6% Diluted EPS(2) $0.74 -38% Adjusted Diluted EPS(1)(2) $0.95 -6% (1) For a full description and reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures see CP’s Q4 2021 Earnings Release (2) As a result of the five-for-one share split of the Company's issued and outstanding Common Shares, which began trading on a post-split basis on May 14, 2021, per share amounts and all outstanding Common Shares for comparative periods of 2020 have been retrospectively adjusted.
U.S. senators grill regulators over climate policy on natural gas projects
A natural gas piping is seen as a sign warns of underground
natural gas pipelines outside Rifle
Thu, March 3, 2022 By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. senators from both parties on Thursday grilled Democratic energy regulators who recently approved guidelines for approving new natural gas projects that allow consideration of environmental justice, landowner and climate issues.
The three Democrats on the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted in February to update the guidelines, for the first time since 1999, a move that analysts say could present hurdles for new gas projects. The two Republicans on the panel opposed the guidelines.
"In my view, there is an effort underway by some to inflict death by a thousand cuts on the fossil fuels that have made our energy reliable and affordable," said Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from natural gas producing West Virginia. Manchin heads the Senate Energy Committee, at which all five FERC members appeared in a hearing.
Richard Glick, a Democrat and the chairman of FERC, said the goal of the guidelines is to "provide an updated, legally durable framework" that incorporates guidance the commission has gotten from federal courts into its approach on permitting natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities.
The building and operation of natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas projects can leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and release particulate emissions that cause health problems.
Oil, gas and coal interests and lawmakers from fossil fuel producing states have stepped up their criticism of Democratic policies on climate and pipelines since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The situation threatens exports of oil and gas from Russia, which produces about 10% of the world's crude oil and about 40% of Europe's natural gas.
Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, agreed with Glick that the guidelines would provide legal certainty to natural gas projects because it would protect them from lawsuits saying their emissions impacts had not been vetted.
"Here we are saying FERC can't require the examination of the most serious environmental threat that this country and the world has ever faced, I think that's preposterous," he said.
King said FERC should work with backers of gas projects and other stakeholders to sharpen the clarity of the guidelines.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the committee's top Republican, has said FERC's ruling was "just the latest attack in (President Joe) Biden's war on American energy."
Biden only nominated one of the current members of FERC, Willie Phillips, a fellow Democrat, and a former chair of Washington, D.C.'s utility commission.
An interim guideline FERC approved on Feb. 17 requires environmental impact statements on natural gas projects that emit above 100,000 metric tons per year of greenhouse gases, a process that opponents say can be lengthy and unwieldy.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Richard Pullin and David Gregorio)
140-year-old record low to be challenged as temps plunge in LA
Renee Duff Thu, March 3, 2022
Record lows left untouched since the late 1800s could be in jeopardy as a chilly and wet pattern overtakes Southern California and the rest of the Southwest this weekend, according to AccuWeather forecasters. The potentially historic cold snap has experts pondering how low temperatures would have plunged had a similar atmospheric setup been in place 140 years ago when there were far fewer urban heat island effects.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Ryan Adamson called the upcoming chill "startling for some" in the wake of above-average temperatures and, in some cases, record warmth in recent days.
This graph shows the observed temperatures compared to normal and record ranges in downtown Los Angeles over the past few weeks.
Temperatures can drop low enough to challenge records in Downtown Los Angeles on both nights this weekend, according to Adamson.
On Saturday night, AccuWeather is projecting a low of 41 degrees Fahrenheit in the City of Angels, which is within striking distance of the bottom mark for the date of 39 set in 1882. Temperatures around the 40-degree mark on Sunday night would tie that date's record low which has stood since 1893. This would be a 40-degree temperature plunge from the end of February into the first days of March, when high temperatures topped out in the lower 80s in L.A., with other parts of California setting new marks for record high temperatures.
The forecast for Downtown Los Angeles shows the trend to chillier weather this weekend. (AccuWeather)
To say a lot has changed since the late 1800s when these record lows were first stamped into the weather history books would be an understatement. In terms of population alone, the downtown area had 3.9 million residents as of the 2020 U.S. census, a 78-fold increase since the 1890 population of around 50,000. Buildings, roadways, sidewalks and vehicles -- all of which contribute to higher temperatures being observed in urban heat islands -- have also increased in vast numbers across Southern California since the late 1800s.
As a result, forecasters say it's certainly possible that had the atmospheric setup that is projected this weekend been in place during early March of 1882 and 1893, the record lows for these dates could be considerably lower and much farther out of reach than currently predicted this weekend.
Beyond L.A., AccuWeather meteorologists say the potential for near-record temperatures will be lower elsewhere across Southern California, but it will still be on the chilly side compared to normal levels. Temperatures will be 5-15 degrees below average in general across the region, including into parts of the Desert Southwest.
Palm Springs, California, can expect high temperatures in the 60s with overnight lows dipping into the upper 40s this weekend, a far cry from the record-breaking high of 93 on March 1.
Heavy storm clouds move in over downtown Los Angeles as snow tops the San Gabriel mountain range on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Farther east in Phoenix, high temperatures are projected to dip into the middle 60s by Sunday, about 10 degrees lower than the average of 75.
The good news for residents eager for warmth to return is that forecasters say its comeback will not be too far in the distant future. Seasonable temperatures could make an appearance again in Southern California by early next week, but it may take another day or two before the chill erodes farther east.
In the meantime, the cooler and wetter conditions should help to temporarily ease concerns of wildfires across the region and help crews gain the upper hand on ongoing blazes.
Florida wildlife officials lift Goliath grouper fishing ban
Ben Montgomery Thu, March 3, 2022
Despite opposition from scientists and divers, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted yesterday to lift the ban on catching Goliath grouper, an embattled species that was nearly fished to extinction in the 1980s.
Under the rules approved yesterday, fishermen will soon be allowed to apply for one of 200 permits and tags to harvest Goliath grouper, which can grow to be eight feet long and weigh up to 800 pounds.
Harvesting Goliath grouper has been banned since 1990.
They presented commissioners with a petition containing signatures from 66,400 opponents of lifting the ban.
What they're saying: "This is simply not the time to reconsider a harvest for this species," Chris Malinowski, director of research and conservation at the Ocean First Institute, said at the meeting.
Commissioners who backed the change say a limited harvest with a slot limit of 24-36 inches, and a rule that mandates reporting biological data for the catch, will provide scientists more information about the status of the species.
Of note: Commissioner Steven Hudson, the only no vote, asked FWC staff to explore a fishing ban around several aggregated spawning grounds for Goliath grouper.
Axios
Anna Netrebko out of Met Opera over her support of Putin
RONALD BLUM Thu, March 3, 2022
NEW YORK (AP) — Soprano Anna Netrebko withdrew from her future engagements at the Metropolitan Opera rather than repudiate her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, costing the company one of its top singers and best box-office draws.
“It is a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera,” Met General Manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Thursday. “Anna is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no way forward.”
Gelb had said Sunday that the Met would not engage artists who support Putin.
The Met made repeated efforts in recent days attempting to convince Netrebko to repudiate Putin but failed to persuade her, a person familiar with the developments said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced.
The Met’s decision followed the collapse of the international career of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who has been close to Putin as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg.
The invasion of Ukraine has led to a show of solidarity in the arts and culture world with Ukrainians and a backlash against the Russian government and those with ties to it that won't reject Putin's actions. The ripple effects have also reached the international sports world.
Netrebko, a 50-year-old from Krasnodar, received the People’s Artist of Russia honor from Putin in 2008.
She was photographed in 2014 holding a Novorussian flag after giving a 1 million ruble donation (then $18,500) to the opera hose in Donetsk, a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russia separatists.
On Tuesday, Netrebko withdrew from all her upcoming performances. Her next listed performance was at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu on April 3, followed by three concerts with her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov, and an April 13 concert with the Berlin Philharmonic.
“I am opposed to this senseless war of aggression and I am calling on Russia to end this war right now, to save all of us. We need peace right now,” she said. "This is not a time for me to make music and perform. I have therefore decided to take a step back from performing for the time being. It is an extremely difficult decision for me, but I know that my audience will understand and respect this decision.”
There was no immediate response from Netrebko to Gelb's announcement.
Netrebko made her Met debut on Feb, 14, 2002, in Prokofiev's “War and Peace” and quickly became a house favorite. She has appeared in 192 performances at the house, the last a New Year's Eve gala she starred in on Dec. 31, 2019.
Netrebko will be replaced by Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in Puccini’s “Turandot” for five performances from April 30 to May 14, including a May 7 performance broadcast to theaters worldwide. The Met said Netrebko also will be replaced as Elisabetta in Verdi's “Don Carlo” for five performances from Nov. 3-19.
The Met also said it would construct its own sets and costumes for next season's new production of Wagner's “Lohengrin” rather than share them with Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, as originally planned.
Gergiev was fired this week as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, and the Gergiev festival, an annual event since 1996, was canceled by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was principal guest conductor from 1995 to 2008. He also was dropped by the Vienna Philharmonic, the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala.
How cheap Chinese tires might explain Russia's 'stalled' 40-mile-long military convoy in Ukraine
Peter Weber, Senior editor
ROLLING STONE
Thu, March 3, 2022
As the eighth day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine began Thursday morning, Russian forces appeared to have gained tactical control of their first city, the southern port city of Kherson, but Ukraine is still holding out in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv, despite heavy shelling. Deaths are mounting on both sides.
Big explosions were heard in Kyiv overnight, but according to the British Defense Ministry's Thursday morning update, the main body of the 40-mile-long Russian military convoy advancing on the capital remains nearly 20 miles from the city center, "having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown, and congestion. The column has made little discernible progress in over three days."
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby gave a similar prognosis on Wednesday, saying the "stalled" column hasn't, "from our best estimates, made any appreciable progress in the last 24-36 hours," possibly because the Russians are "regrouping themselves and reassessing the progress that they have not made and how to make up the lost time," but probably also due to "logistics and sustainment challenges" and "resistance from the Ukrainians."
Trent Telenko, a retired Pentagon staff specialist and military history blogger, suggests another big reason may be Russia's tires, as he explained in a long, illustrated Twitter thread based on photos of deserted Russian Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile systems and his own experience as a U.S. Army vehicle auditor. "When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end," the sidewalls get brittle in the sun and fail like the tires on the Pantsir-SR, he wrote. "No one exercised that vehicle for one year."
Karl Muth, an economist, government adviser, and self-described "tire expert," jumped in, agreeing with Telenko but adding some details about the tires.
"There is a huge operational level implication in this," Telenko said. "If the Russian Army was too corrupt to exercise a Pantsir-S1, they were too corrupt to exercise the trucks and wheeled [armored fighting vehicles] now in Ukraine," meaning "the Russians simply cannot risk them off-road during the Rasputitsa/mud season." That is a problem for the convoy in the north, he added. "The Crimea is a desert and the South Ukrainian coastal areas are dryer. So we are not seeing this there. But elsewhere the Russians have a huge problem for the next 4 to 6 weeks." Read Telenko's whole thread on Twitter.
WAS HE AUDITIONING FOR FOX Russian Official Blames Ukraine Invasion Sanctions on Cancel Culture
Peter Wade Thu, March 3, 2022
Russia’s foreign intelligence director alluded to cancel culture and claimed that Russia is suffering “a cancellation” as the world slaps sanctions on the nation for invading Ukraine.
“The masks have been dropped. The West is not just trying to surround Russia with a new Iron Curtain,” Russia’s Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin said on Thursday. “We are talking about attempts to destroy our state — its ‘cancellation,’ as it is now customary to say in a ‘tolerant’ liberal-fascist environment.”
Naryshkin’s comments appeared on Russian-language site RIA Novosti, which noted that they were initially posted on the website of SVR, the Russian intelligence agency. Paul Sonne, a national security reporter for The Washington Post, pointed them out on Twitter.
Naryshkin also noted that those describing a new Cold War between Russia and the West are mistaken. “Western politicians and commentators like to call what is happening a ‘new Cold War,'” he said. “It seems that historical parallels are not entirely appropriate here. If only because in the second half of the 20th century, Russia fought with the West on the distant approaches, and now the war has come to the very borders of our Motherland. So for us it is definitely not ‘cold’, but quite ‘hot.'”
Naryshkin’s comments come as commentators in the United States have invoked cancel culture to describe the international backlash against Russia.
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Monica Crowley evoked cancel culture on Tuesday, telling Jesse Watters on Fox News that “Russia is now being canceled,” in part because of the sanctions. “Between the fierce Ukrainian resistance and the widespread international financial sanctions and boycotts and Russian teams being barred from international competitions, Russia is being canceled,” Crowley said. “It is a different world. This is not something that President Putin ever had anticipated.”
Jason Willick, a columnist for The Washington Post, invoked cancel culture in a tweet. “We are witnessing the first geopolitical ‘cancellation’ of the 21st century,” he wrote.
Crowley and Willick both defended the “cancellation.” Republican Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers did not, claiming in a tweet that the West “is trying to deplatform and debank Russia.”
Rogers’ tweet came as the U.S. and its European allies agreed to block Russian banks from accessing SWIFT, a financial messaging system that enables banks to make and accept payments. “This is just as wrong as invading Ukraine,” she added of the military operation that has resulted in widespread devastation throughout Ukraine and thousands of lives lost.
Regardless of the intentions of those cramming the fallout from a world-historical conflict into the rhetoric of American right-wingers trying to avoid accountability for bad behavior, it’s a pretty disconcerting that said rhetoric has now been co-opted by an official of the nation waging the invasion.
Well done, conservatives.
SNAFU Ottawa police misjudged protesters who besieged Canada's capital - testimony Thu, March 3, 2022 By Anna Mehler Paperny
TORONTO (Reuters) - A three-week occupation of the center of Canada's capital last month resulted in part from police underestimating anti-government protesters by assuming they would leave within days, according to police sources and police leadership testimony.
That miscalculation was compounded by a reluctance to crack down on the demonstrators once they had become entrenched in downtown Ottawa, partly out of fear of escalation, a police source and multiple observers told Reuters.
The protesters initially rallied opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers, but the blockade became a demonstration against government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Police in riot gear using pepper spray and stun grenades cleared the "Freedom Convoy" participants from Ottawa the weekend of Feb. 20, days after Trudeau invoked unprecedented emergency powers.
"What they did ... they could have done on the first weekend. Their authorities were there, all along," said a source with knowledge of Ottawa Police operations who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss them.
Two days before the convoy drove into town, Ottawa's Police Services Board held a special meeting where police leadership repeatedly told their civilian oversight board they expected the convoy to leave two days after their expected arrival, according to a video recording of the meeting.
Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson told the meeting police were "well placed" in terms of resources and they had built-in "surge capacity" to deal with the protests.
Ottawa Police declined to comment on whether there was a failure in leadership, citing a review into police response to the "unlawful demonstration," and did not immediately respond to a question about whether they had the authority needed to clear the protesters when they first arrived.
In a police services board meeting before police cleared the occupation, interim chief Steve Bell said he thought the police response had been "adequate and effective."
"I wouldn't agree it's been a colossal failure of intelligence," Bell told the board. He would not say what advice led police to allow the vehicles downtown in the first place.
He acknowledged that police need to improve their intelligence gathering.
"We have to look at other, better ways to collect better, more timely information."
The protests paralyzed downtown Ottawa. As they dug in, then-Police Chief Peter Sloly called for almost 2,000 additional officers from provincial and federal forces.
What residents called a permissive police attitude may have stemmed in part from a lack of respect for Sloly, who was unpopular among his rank-and-file, or from fear of riling up hostile protesters, two city councillors and two criminologists said.
"Once it got to the point that the protest bedded in ... officers might think, 'We were put in this by bad management,'" said University of Ottawa criminologist Michael Kempa, who studies policing.
"What has been described as ineffective leadership has led to low officer engagement. Low officer engagement has further eroded that leadership."
But the police source said officers followed orders.
"In any large demonstration, they await a command decision. And that command decision comes from the executive level," he said. Ottawa police officers felt caught between a hands-off leadership approach and public anger at perceived inaction, the source added.
Sloly, who stepped down last month amid widespread dissatisfaction with police response, could not be reached for comment.
Sloly was an outsider who became Ottawa police chief in 2019 promising reform in part by repairing relationships with Black communities. He took flak from the police union when he suggested in September 2020 that systemic racism existed in the ranks.
Sloly "didn't have a chance" to win over his officers, said Eli El-Chantiry, a councillor and police services board member.
El-Chantiry was not on the board when he first spoke with Reuters but is now its chair after its previous chair was ousted.
Bell, the interim police chief, was asked at a board meeting last month, before the convoy was cleared, why the police response had been "inadequate" and whether officers were supporting the convoy, something he said they are investigating.
Ottawa Police would not tell Reuters how many officers are being investigated for complicity with the convoy.
Three members of the board resigned this week following reports one of them had attended the protests, although El-Chantiry said the member did so the first weekend and informed the board chair about it. The former member said he would issue a statement.
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Snafu - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snafu SNAFU is an acronym that is widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression Situation Normal: All Fucked Up. It is a well-known example of military acronym slang. It is sometimes bowdlerized to "all fouled up" or similar.[1] It means that the situation is bad, but that this is a normal state of affairs. The acronym is believed to have originated in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
