EU Must Speed Green Deal to Shut Out Russian Gas, CEOs Say

John Ainger
Tue, May 10, 2022, 


(Bloomberg) -- More than 100 companies from Microsoft Corp. to Unilever Plc want the European Union to intensify its focus on renewable energy as the bloc races to end its dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

“At the core of the current energy security and price crises sits an overdependence on volatile, imported fossil gas, oil and coal,” chief executives and other business leaders said in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “This is the time to be bold and double down on delivering the Green Deal,” the EU’s push for carbon neutrality by mid-century.

The EU can accelerate its shift by scaling up investments in renewable energy, improving building insulation and encouraging businesses to choose low-carbon technologies, according to the letter seen by Bloomberg. Tax cuts and income-support measures could help spur the change, said the companies, which include Iberdrola SA and retailer H&M.

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February exacerbated an energy-supply crunch already under way in Europe, sending commodity prices soaring to record levels. Now the continent is facing potential fuel disruptions as Russia -- the EU’s biggest gas provider -- threatens to cut supplies if buyers don’t pay in rubles.

Next week the EU is set to launch its plan to slash the use of Russian gas by two-thirds this year. It’s set to include measures that will speed the permitting process for wind and solar farms, while also creating incentives for consumers to use less energy.

Before the war, Russia was responsible for around 40% of the EU’s gas imports, a figure the bloc wants to bring down to zero this decade. While the EU is burning more coal and seeking energy from alternative sources that could temporarily raise emissions, it wants to accelerate the transition in the longer term.

The CEOs called for a strengthening of key pillars of the Green Deal by increasing ambition in areas like the EU’s carbon market, albeit with more support for domestic industry. They’re also seeking to increase the specialized workforce needed for the transition to cleaner energy.

Solar rooftops, manufacturing to get boost under draft EU plan

Tue, May 10, 2022
By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, May 10 (Reuters) - The European Commission hopes to jumpstart a large-scale rollout of solar energy and rebuild Europe's solar manufacturing industry, as part of its bid to wean countries off Russian fossil fuels, a draft document seen by Reuters showed.

"Solar electricity and heat are key for phasing out EU's dependence on Russian natural gas," the Commission said in the draft, due to be published next week in a package of proposals to end the European Union's reliance on Russian oil and gas.

Solar photovoltaics (PV) costs have plunged by more than 80% over the last decade, but the technology produced only 5% of EU electricity in 2020. Solar's share in heat production was even lower, at 1.5%.

Brussels would launch a "European Solar Rooftops Initiative" to help cut gas-fuelled power and heating in homes, offices, shops and factories, the draft said.

The scheme would require the EU and national governments to take action this year to limit permitting times to three months for rooftop installations. It would push countries to use EU funding and launch support programmes for rooftop panels, and install solar energy in all suitable public buildings by 2025.

Another EU scheme would bring together governments and training providers to focus on skilling solar sector workers, while an "EU Solar Industry Alliance" would use the bloc's budget and carbon market "innovation fund" to support investments in manufacturing.

Europe has around 14 planned solar component manufacturing projects, but some need billions of euros in financing to launch.

China supplied 75% of EU solar panel imports in 2020. Europe has struggled to compete with its own large-scale factories, despite the EU imposing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy controls on solar panels from China between 2013 and 2018.

"The solar turnaround has never been tackled in concrete terms," said EU Green lawmaker Michael Bloss, who alongside countries including Austria, Lithuania and Spain, has called for Brussels to tackle the issue with legal tools, rather than voluntary schemes - such as by legally requiring new buildings to have solar rooftops on flat roofs, public buildings and supermarkets across Europe.

A separate draft document, seen by Reuters, would tweak EU law to fast-track permitting deadlines for some renewable energy projects.

 (Reporting by Kate Abnett; editing by David Evans)

EU plans one-year renewable energy permits for faster green shift

Kate Abnett
Mon, May 9, 2022

BRUSSELS, May 9 (Reuters) - The European Union executive wants to speed up the bloc's green transition and cut its reliance on Russian fuels by allowing some renewable energy projects to receive permits within a year, a draft document shows.

Brussels will next week unveil a package of measures to end the European Union's reliance on Russia, by boosting renewable energy, saving energy and increasing gas imports from elsewhere.

As part of this, the European Commission will propose rules requiring countries to designate "go-to areas" of land or sea suitable for renewable energy, where such projects would have a low environmental impact, the draft legislative proposal shows.

"The permit-granting process for new projects located in renewables go-to areas shall not exceed one year," the document said, adding that this could be extended by three months in "extraordinary circumstances".

That compares with the EU's current two-year deadline for permitting such schemes, which can also be extended by an extra year. Projects outside of go-to areas would stick to this timeline, the draft said.

Renewable projects often face far longer delays, however, owing to red tape, local opposition or concerns about protecting endangered species, raising concerns that the bloc will struggle to expand wind and solar energy fast enough to meet climate change goals.

In Greece, for example, eight years is a typical timeline for approving wind energy projects, the Hellenic Wind Energy Association said.

"Renewable energy sources are crucial to fight climate change, reduce energy prices, decrease the Union's dependence on fossil fuels and ensure the Union's security of supply," the document said.

Permitting and building renewable energy projects would be labelled as in the "overriding public interest", enabling a simplified assessment. EU citizens would still have the right to participate in decisions on the projects, the draft said.

Go-to areas would avoid protected sites or bird migration routes, and prioritise built areas like rooftops, roads and railways, industrial sites and public land around them.

The overall areas would be subject to an environmental assessment, but individual projects would no longer need one, unless they would significantly affect the environment in another EU country, the draft said.

Smaller projects with less than 150kW capacity in go-to areas would face a faster six-month permitting process, or nine if there are issues around safety or the impact on the power grid.

The speedier permit rules would not apply to plants that burn biomass for energy. (Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Danish Renewable Firm Said to Consider Stake Sale to Fund Growth

Francois de Beaupuy and Jan-Henrik Förster
Tue, May 10, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- European Energy A/S is considering selling a 10% stake that could value the Danish renewable power company at as much as 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion), people familiar with the matter said.

The closely held company is working with a financial adviser to help raise funds for its next phase of expansion, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. The company could be valued at 2.5 billion euros to 3 billion euros in the planned transaction, they said.

Talks are ongoing and there’s no certainty a deal will materialize, the people said. A spokesperson for the Copenhagen-based firm declined to comment.

The Danish solar and wind operator, which is developing projects in more than a dozen European nations as well as in the U.S., Brazil and Australia, is seeking to benefit from investor interest in renewables as nations push to accelerate the fight against global warming. The Danish government alone plans to quadruple the production of solar and onshore wind energy by 2030 to support the green transition.

Europe is also seeking to quicken its move toward renewables following Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the consequent uncertainty over oil and gas supplies.

European Energy, founded in 2004, aims to have 1.5 gigawatts of clean power capacity under construction this year. It says it had 20 gigawatts in development in Europe at the end of last year. The company predicted in February that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will rise 66% this year to 135 million euros.

It is also among a group of companies that recently signed a partnership to provide methanol produced with renewable power to help shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S cut its use of fossil fuels.

A Showdown Over Coal Could Decide Who Wins Australia's Election


Ben Westcott and Jason Scott
Tue, May 10, 2022,

(Bloomberg) -- A coal-mining community that has elected the same political party for more than a century could decide Australia’s next government this month in an election that has divided the nation over how to battle climate change.

Poll after poll has shown that the majority of Australians want to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but with the ruling conservative Liberal-National coalition holding power by a single seat and the two main political camps almost neck and neck, it could come down to a handful of constituencies where an abrupt end to coal mining would devastate communities, leaving thousands of workers without jobs.

At stake is the policy of a nation that is a potential renewable-energy superpower but still gets 70% of its electricity and about a quarter of its exports from fossil fuels. Hastening an end to the nation’s vast coal industry would make a major contribution to the global effort to limit planetary warming.

With campaigning reaching a crescendo before the May 21 vote, the spotlight has fallen on Hunter, an electorate about the size of Jamaica some 100 miles north of Sydney, and famous for wine and coal. The Hunter Valley is one of huge contrasts, with bucolic century-old vineyards along the winding Hunter River bookended by some 40 operating mines to the west and the world’s largest coal-export port of Newcastle in the east.

Ravaged by the bushfires of Australia’s “Black Summer” two years ago, but dependent on fossil fuel sales, it is the nexus of the country's climate dilemma, and helps explain the political paralysis that's left the nation largely silent in efforts to craft global policy to accelerate action on emissions.

Almost one in 10 workers in Hunter are directly employed by the coal mining industry, a blue-collar legacy that made it a safe bet for 112 years for the center-left Labor Party. In recent elections, Labor’s promises to accelerate the fight against climate change have spooked many traditional supporters, threatening to hand the seat to the ruling coalition headed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who once famously brandished a lump of coal in parliament in support of the fossil fuel sector.

Now with Labor narrowly ahead in opinion polling, winning Hunter could be vital for Morrison to hang on to power. In the last election in 2019, Labor’s strong climate-change action promises caused a 9% swing to the government. A similar shift this month would see Morrison’s party win the seat for the first time.

But it’s a delicate balancing act for both sides. To garner support from the country at large, Morrison and opposition leader Anthony Albanese have been burnishing their climate credentials. A survey last year by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute showed that 55% of Australians now say the government’s main priority for energy policy should be “reducing carbon emissions.”

Morrison pledged A$50 million ($35 million) of new investment to help create jobs in the region during a Wednesday campaign visit in Newcastle, and vowed to develop “world-leading technology in solar, hydrogen, storage and green metals.”

In Hunter, though, political campaigns are also about promising to save jobs and keep the coal industry going long enough to safeguard livelihoods.

“Hunter Valley coal is the best coal in the world, so while there is still a market for coal, it will continue to be serviced by the mines of the Hunter Valley,” said Matthew Swan, the Port of Newcastle’s business development manager, in his office overlooking docks that ship more than 150 million tons of the fuel a year.

Swan’s words have found an unusual supporter in Labor’s candidate for Hunter — Dan Repacholi.

Olympian Task

“While people want to buy our coal, we’ll sell them our coal,” said Repacholi, a giant, four-time Olympian pistol shooter and former coal worker. We will “keep building and building and building until the export market decides that and the world decides that that’s not the way we’re going to go anymore.”

On the hustings, Repacholi effortlessly bonds with workers dropping in from the local pits and businesses, but his party’s traditional reputation for bolstering miners’ rights has been eroded by its strong climate-change stance. Labor has pledged to reduce emissions 43% by 2030 and boost the share of renewable energy to 82%, with a net zero target by 2050.

For Morrison’s government, the balance is even harder. There’s a growing sense that voters could punish his conservatives at the election after almost a decade in power during which they tore up one of the world’s first carbon-trading programs and refused to significantly penalize polluters. Australia has one of the largest per-capita emissions tallies in the developed world and climate scientists have linked a wave of natural disasters under Morrison’s watch to climate change, including the “once every 1,000 years” floods that smashed the continent’s east coast this year.

The government did finally set a 2050 net zero target ahead of last year’s Glasgow climate summit, but hasn’t set new interim goals and its outline for change has been criticized for relying on technologies still in development, such as hydrogen, to deliver the bulk of emission reductions.

In a speech in Perth on Saturday, Morrison said that if re-elected, his government would tackle climate challenge “in a way that maintains competitiveness of our traditional industries — not writing those industries off, but strengthening them in efficient and technologically advanced ways.” The government’s candidate for Hunter, James Thomson, did not respond to requests for an interview.

For workers in Hunter, the key is not to keep the coal industry going at all costs, but to come up with a realistic way to transition to clean energy without destroying the community.

“The idea that someone is going to be able to walk out of a mining pit on Friday and rock up at a hydrogen factory on Monday and do a course over the weekend -- that’s not how it works,” said Warrick Jordan of the Hunter Jobs Alliance, established by a group of unions and environmental groups to help navigate the energy transition.

Singleton, in the heart of the coal-mining region, is one of seven local government areas out of more than 500 surveyed by the the Centre for Policy Development that would be “severely” impacted by global decarbonization. Eliminating fossil fuels could affect about 300,000 jobs throughout Australia connected to coal, oil and gas exports, the center said.

“We’re not planning for the future,” said Sue Gilroy, head of the Business Chamber in Singleton, which has a population of about 22,000. “We could be diversifying and growing the other industries and the other opportunities that we have in the Hunter.”

Oldest Vineyards

Those other industries include the nation’s oldest vineyards, dating back as early as the 1820s, which have a pressing need to address global warming.

More than 2,600 hectares (6,425 acres) of the valley are now under vines, including estates such as Tyrrell’s, Brokenwood and Mount Pleasant. Steadily rising temperatures over the past decades have forced growers to take steps to protect harvests, such as increasing irrigation and spraying vines with sunscreen.

“The effects of climate change are really present and obvious in the wine industry — earlier harvests, more extreme rainfall, more extreme heat events, more compressed vintages” said Alisdair Tulloch, who runs a vineyard certified as carbon neutral by Australia's government.

Extreme weather has also pushed more people to worry about the effects of climate change in the region. Until the bushfires two years ago, Fiona Lee believed the effects of global warming would only be felt by future generations. Her house near the Hunter Valley was one of about 3,000 destroyed during Australia’s 2019 and 2020 bushfires after a prolonged drought. Now she’s a full-time climate activist.

“There’s been quite an awakening in Australia” after the blazes, Lee said from an office where she coordinates opposition to a planned A$600 million gas plant in the town of Kurri Kurri. “There needs to be much more money in the Hunter to support workers in the transition. I can’t believe there’s no plan.”

US Air Force test shows the A-10 Warthog can take out modern tanks with armor improvements with its powerful cannon


Julie Coleman
Tue, May 10, 2022,

An A-10 Thunderbolt II sits on the ramp at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, April 20, 2014.

U.S. Air Force/Senior Master Sgt. Gary J. Rihn

A US Air Force test showed that the A-10 attack aircraft, which is over 40 years old, can take out even modern tanks with its gun.


The air service tested the attack aircraft against main battle tank surrogates with explosive reactive armor.


The plane's GAU-8 Avenger cannon can fire around 3,900 rounds per minute.

The US Air Force demonstrated that the A-10 Thunderbolt II, a close-air support mission plane that has been in service for over 40 years, is able to knock out modern tanks equipped with armor improvements with its powerful cannon.

In February, the Air Force carried out a first-ever test at the Nevada Test and Training Range in which pairs of A-10Cs unleashed armor-piercing incendiary rounds against up-armored surrogate main battle tanks with Explosive Reactive Armor, a kind of protection for modern armored vehicles designed to reduce the damage incoming rounds cause, the Air Force's 53rd Wing said in a statement last Friday.

In the aftermath of the test, analysts examined videos, photos, and the tanks themselves to determine the damage inflicted by the Warthog, and they determined that the vehicles had been rendered inoperative.

The Air Force said the test "proved that modern-day armored vehicles equipped with Explosive Reactive Armor are vulnerable to the A-10C Thunderbolt II's" gun.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II, often called the "Warthog" and sometimes seen with painted teeth on its nose – is probably most famous for its GAU-8 Avenger, an impressive 30 mm cannon protruding from the nose of the plane that can fire 3,900 bullets per minute, producing a loud "BRRRRT" noise.

"A typical A-10 gun employment uses 120 rounds, which means an A-10 is capable of employing fires on nine to ten targets before exhausting its gun munitions," Maj. Kyle Adkison, the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron A-10C division commander, said in an Air Force press release. "Against large fielded forces, A-10 formations are capable of engaging nearly 40 armored vehicles with 30 millimeter munitions," he continued. "That's a significant amount of firepower."

The Air Force statement said the "A-10 can continue to deliver massive rapid firepower with devastating effects on enemy vehicles in a contested environment," but despite the Warthog's capabilities, the Air Force has been trying to retire the plane since 2015 to free up funds for other projects. Its efforts, however, have been repeatedly thwarted by Congress.

"No member of Congress wants to lose, or stand by and silently lose, a fleet of aircraft or a capability from their state or district, which, of course translates to jobs," Deborah Lee James, the 23rd secretary of the Air Force told Military.com in 2020.

The A-10 was first introduced in the 1970s and is the Air Force's first aircraft designed specifically to provide close-air support to ground forces. The service said it plans to continue testing other munitions against up-armored vehicles.

Canada's federal public servants afraid to speak truth to power: study


Canada’s public service leaders have a problem telling the truth to their political bosses.


© Provided by Ottawa Citizen

The Peace Tower, symbol of Canada's federal government. 

An impartial public service is a cornerstone of a successful democracy.

Kathryn May, Policy Options - 

A new report, Top of Mind , says they feel ill-equipped to gather evidence for policy advice, especially in a world where facts are distorted and drowned out by disinformation, polarization and hyperpartisan politics.

To make matters worse, they appear afraid to tell their political masters the hard truths when they do find them.

Getting back to the basics in policy-making and execution are among the top worries that senior bureaucrats raised in the new study into the state of the public service in Canada. It was conducted by two think-tanks, the Ottawa-based Institute on Governance (IOG), and the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at St. Francis Xavier University.

The study, launched in the middle of the pandemic, was aimed at understanding the challenges these executives face when doing their jobs, which is to provide reliable, well-run services for Canadians as well as policy advice to ministers. It was based on interviews with 42 senior leaders from all levels of government and a survey of 2,355 public servants in the same departments and agencies.

The big worries — which many felt were accelerated by the pandemic — included falling trust in government; the decline in sharing “fearless advice”; a hollowing out of policy capacity; a post-pandemic economic reckoning; conflicts between different levels of government; and the need for public service reform.

The report didn’t dig into the root causes, but the responses raise enough red flags to justify a debate and development of a roadmap for reform, said Stephen Van Dine, IOG’s senior vice-president, public governance.

“We have enough from this report to say we better be looking into this,” he said.

An impartial public service is a cornerstone of Canada’s democracy. Bureaucrats are supposed to speak truth to power. The ethos of “fearless advice and loyal implementation” is its motto, and public servants take an oath to uphold it when hired.

“The participants felt rational thought and evidence-based decision-making are being circumvented by politicization, polarization and disinformation,” said Van Dine.

“Do public servants have access to enough truth to give fearless advice? If all their information is coming from above rather than from networks in and outside government, how much truth is there really? What happened to the role of public education in the policy development process?”

The responses paint a picture of a bureaucracy that’s too isolated from Canadians and not independent enough from politics, said Van Dine.

Over the years, rules restricting travel and hospitality expenses put a damper on public servants’ ability to meet with provincial counterparts, industry representatives and civil society. They aren’t networking, developing contacts outside of government, or educating Canadians about the factors at play in policy-making.

© Kier Gilmour

Justice John Gomery arrives at the Château Laurier hotel Jan. 31, 2006. The Gomery Inquiry concluded that a grey zone between bureaucrats and politicians was at the heart of the sponsorship scandal and recommended ways to reset it.

“This has isolated the public service from the outside world and given the outside world the only door into government, which is through the Prime Minister’s Office or a minister’s office,” said Van Dine.

But public servants need new skills and modern technology. They need people who think digital, understand systems, analytics, data and can manage projects. That means attracting people to government and hiring them more quickly than the eight months it takes now.

All of this is having an impact on a long-strained relationship between public servants and ministers. Two-thirds of respondents said that relationship was “an important challenge that requires more effective management.”

Many respondents said the relationship is being eaten away by the “over-politicization of policy-making and choices, and the lack of opportunity to constructively challenge political direction.”

The report concluded that “speaking truth to power … seems less achievable to many participants.” Bureaucrats don’t have “safe spaces” among themselves to have all-out debates about analysis or options that “are unpopular“ or “not in tune with their government’s political position.”

Instead, they are expected to toe the party line and give politicians the advice they want to hear.

It’s unclear why. Is it because the deputy ministers aren’t encouraging dissent? Are bureaucrats holding back for fear of falling out of favour with their bosses or being seen as disrespectful?

“The strong undercurrent is that the public service has lost an element of independence and is now expected to deliver on platform commitments rather than offer objective policy advice on the feasibility of the commitment or alternative ways to achieve the objective of the platform commitment,” said the report.

This is an old problem .

Experts sounded the alarm more than 25 years ago about public servants’ hesitancy to speak truth to power. It led to the 1996 Tait report , the foundation of the public service’s values and ethics code.

Donald Savoie, a leading public administration expert, has repeatedly warned that the concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office is politicizing the public service. He likened it to “court government” where senior officials act like courtiers trying to ingratiate themselves, rather than delivering hard truths.

The Gomery Inquiry concluded that a grey zone between bureaucrats and politicians was at the heart of the sponsorship scandal and recommended ways to reset it.

The late auditor general Michael Ferguson famously linked the Phoenix pay system disaster to a risk-averse and “ obedient public service .” He concluded that the “ability to convey hard truths has eroded, as has the willingness of senior levels — including ministers — to hear hard truths.”

Despite these warnings, little has been done to fix the problem. The Harper government introduced the Federal Accountability Act in response to the sponsorship scandal, but many experts argue its focus on rules, oversight and compliance made matters worse .

Today’s deputy ministers climbed the ranks over the 20 years since the sponsorship scandal, and the Federal Accountability Act is the world they know. Many argue they got to the top because of their skills in dodging risks, following the rules and keeping government out of trouble.

In the new Top of Mind report, it is unclear how a lack of fearless advice is “cascading” down the ranks. Van Dine worries that assistant deputy ministers aren’t speaking up as they should now that the Public Service Commission has turned over “talent management” to the deputy ministers who appoint them.

“Now the deputy minister is holding all the cards about promotion and appointment … To what extent are they becoming more deputy servants than public servants?” he asks.

The Harper era is also when public servants found themselves drawn into partisan communications with directives, events, activities and website designs to promote the Conservative Party brand.

Today, some respondents worry that a focus on communications is supplanting policy. The current focus is on how a policy will play out or how its “messaging” will be received by Canadians, rather than getting to the nub of the issues the government wants to address.

“Make stuff less about the announcements and actually make it about the issue,” said one leader, quoted in the report. “Communicate with Canadians on that front — what is the problem you are trying to fix here? … People have the basics wrong, and it leads to bad discord.”

The Top of Mind report makes a series of recommendations that could lead to a top-to-bottom overhaul of the federal public service.

At the top of the list is a proposal for a joint Senate-Commons committee to review the Accountability Act, zeroing in on whether its onerous compliance and reporting requirements stifle innovation and create an obedience culture.

The paper also recommended modernizing the ground rules for relationships between bureaucrats and politicians and examining what’s needed for public servants to create “safe spaces for fearless advice,” so they can provide facts, analysis and policy options that don’t toe the government’s party line.

Kathryn May is the Accenture Fellow on the Future of the Public Service, providing coverage and analysis of the complex issues facing Canada’s federal public service for Policy Options. She has spent 25 years writing about the public service — the country’s largest workforce — and has also covered parliamentary affairs and politics for The Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia Network Inc. and iPolitics. This article is reprinted from Policy Options.

This Racist Youth Movement Is Melting Down Over Virginity

Kelly Weill
Wed, May 11, 2022

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

A newly nominated Republican congressional candidate in Ohio says he’s not a QAnon guy. There’s just one problem: The candidate, J.R. Majewski, was repeatedly filmed talking about Q on web shows, spray-painting QAnon logos onto his lawn, and wearing QAnon merchandise.

“This guy has more QAnon merchandise than basically any QAnon person I’ve ever talked to,” says Fever Dreams co-host Will Sommer, who found videos of Majewski wearing an extensive Q-themed wardrobe.

This week on Fever Dreams, we dive deep into the far right’s livestreamed publicity woes, from Majewski’s QAnon comments, to a nasty fight in the white nationalist “America First” movement. The movement, which counts Congress members Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene as fans, is undergoing turmoil after its treasurer got a girlfriend and stopped living in the basement of leader Nick Fuentes. That was a problem for Fuentes, who describes himself as an incel (that’s “involuntarily celibate”) and beseeches his young, male fanbase not to have sex. Now the movement’s former treasurer is calling the movement a cult.

The movement is so grounded in being “racist and ridiculous in public that it ruins people’s lives,” says Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill. “You can’t go and get a normal job after that. So they turn further and further into this movement, which really does function almost like a cult.”

While the America First movement struggles with girl problems, Trump fans on the southern border are facing strange new allegations of their own. A recent New York Times report details a QAnon-fueled border vigilante movement that has MAGA types bribing migrant children with hamburgers and asking them for information about their families. It’s not the first group of wingnuts to set its eyes on the southern border. Sommer and Weill revisit the history of Q-inspired vigilante groups like “Veterans On Patrol” that have previously peddled wild theories, like falsely claiming that migrant children were being smuggled across the border so that their blood could be mixed into cement.

Meanwhile, in other corners of the far right, a curious blend of Silicon Valley reactionaries and disaffected downtown Manhattan types are coalescing into a new movement. James Pogue, a contributing editor at Harper’s, joins us to discuss his recent Vanity Fair article on the New Right movement.



“On its basic level, the New Right is an insurgent attempt to reshape the Republican party in a more nationalist, deeply conservative direction, kind of like what you would see with Marine Le Pen in France,” Pogue says.

Among the mix are Peter Thiel-backed political candidates and bloggers who openly long for monarchy. Pogue notes that the movement is an unusual amalgam of anti-liberal types, “a very strange and kind of febrile and diffuse movement, but it’s all a sort of critique of the direction of liberal society over the last 400 years.”

Finally, a fringe candidate in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial primary is trying to stand out from the pack with an unusual campaign pledge: tearing down a granite monument that she claims is a New World Order statue. Kandiss Taylor, a third-place contender for the GOP nomination, says she’ll remove the Georgia Guidestones, a Stonehenge-like statue in the countryside.

Not even the residents in rural Georgia are on board, Sommer reports, due to local loyalty to the Guidestones, which are both a popular roadside attraction and a testament to the area’s granite industry

“I asked the mayor of Elberton,” where the Guidestones are located, Sommer said. “He said ‘Maybe she should focus on the wonders of Elberton granite, rather than watching so many YouTube videos.’”

QUEBECOIS NATIONALIST COLONIALISM
Indigenous leaders say Quebec's language bill colonial, paternalistic

Tue, May 10, 2022



QUEBEC — Indigenous leaders in Quebec say the government's French-language bill is destructive, paternalistic and could put the survival of First Nations languages at risk.

Bill 96 would push Indigenous students to pursue higher education outside the province, Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, told reporters Tuesday in Quebec City.

"It's a staggering irony, that the first inhabitants of the land in Quebec are being forced to study outside their territory; that's something we find unacceptable," Picard said at the legislature.

Bill 96 makes several amendments to Quebec's signature language law, known as Bill 101. If passed, it would reinforce rules about the use of French in workplaces, the civil service and the justice system. The bill would also require students at the province's English-language junior colleges to take three additional classes in French.

John Martin, chief of the Mi’kmaq council of Gesgapegiag, on the Gaspé peninsula, said many Indigenous communities were historically forced to speak English and that requiring young people to master a third language — French — would make it more difficult for them to succeed.

"If our communities are going to be able to flourish, education is a key component, but remember also that education has been used as one of the key factors in the assimilation of our people and the destruction of our cultures and the destruction of our languages, and that is why this government needs to sit down and listen to us," Martin said.

"It is a destructive bill. It is a continuation of the kind of colonialism, paternalist and extinguishment activities that governments successively have conducted since their establishment on these territories."

Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, located near Montreal, said the bill could also impact access to justice.

"We do not want to see this bill move forward without any kind of exemption or consideration of Indigenous people, our languages, our cultures that have been here since time immemorial," she said. "The way that this government is conducting itself is very dismissive and it disregards us and our long history and our presence on these lands."

Sky-Deer said the Indigenous leaders want a meeting with Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, the minister responsible for the legislation. She said if the minister doesn't meet with Indigenous leaders, community members will have to resort to taking other actions.

The Indigenous leaders were invited to the Quebec legislature by the opposition Liberals and Québec solidaire. While the Liberals have said they plan to vote against the bill, Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massé said her party plans to vote for it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.

Patrice Bergeron, The Canadian Press

FRANCO CHAUVINISM

First Nations leaders say Quebec has ignored their pleas to be exempt from Bill 96

Tue, May 10, 2022

Kahnawake Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer spoke at the National Assembly Tuesday, saying her community will continue to push for a Bill 96 exemption. (Sylvain Roy Roussel/CBC - image credit)

Quebec says it won't change Bill 96 to exempt Indigenous youth from having to take extra French courses in CEGEP, despite mounting calls from First Nations leaders who say their efforts to rebuild their languages and cultures are in jeopardy.

Kahnawake Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer — who held a news conference at the National Assembly Tuesday alongside Chief Ghislain Picard of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and Gesgapegiag First Nation Chief John Martin — said her community would hold protest actions until it felt heard.

"Any gesture of goodwill right now on behalf of the government will go a long way," Sky-Deer told reporters.

Sky-Deer, Picard and Martin are among the many First Nations leaders who have denounced the clause in Quebec's proposed overhaul of the Charter of the French language that would force students attending English CEGEPs to take more second-language French courses.

The bill could be adopted by the Coalition Avenir Québec majority as early as this week, as the legislation has undergone a number of amendments and is ready for other political parties to have their say on it.

The leaders have repeatedly requested to meet with government officials to ask for an exemption for youths in English-speaking Indigenous communities, who have been learning their language first, with English as a second language and French as a third.

They say the government has shown little sympathy to their cause.

"To put another burden, of a third language for us to have to learn and be proficient in, when we're trying to revitalize our Indigenous language — after all these Indian Day Schools, Indian Residential Schools, and all the things that happened to our people — it's a challenge," said Sky-Deer, whose community is Kanien'kehá-speaking and English-speaking.

As the news conference unfolded at the National Assembly, students in Kahnawake held a march against the bill.

Picard said the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador made a presentation to a legislative committee about the bill and proposed several amendments "to no avail."

"Even when we play by their rules, we are becoming the victims because none of it is being acknowledged," Picard said.

Frederic Bissonnette/Radio-Canada

Simon Jolin-Barrette, who tabled the bill and is the minister responsible for the French language, said Tuesday there was no plan to make any exemptions.

"Since 1977, Bill 101 applies to everybody in Quebec and Bill 101 will continue with Bill 96 to apply to everybody," Jolin-Barrette said, referring to the Charter of the French Language, which was passed as law 45 years ago. Bill 96 aims to update the charter.

Gesgapegiag First Nation Chief John Martin said the original law had increased dropout rates in his Mi'kmaq community.

"It makes it very difficult for our students to succeed in high school and now even harder if they pass high school and get to CEGEP," Martin said.

Bill 96 can't protect Indigenous languages: minister

Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière said he met with First Nations leaders Monday but that his government's line remains the same.

"We need to protect and promote French in Quebec," Lafrenière said. "Let's find the right tool to protect and promote different languages. Bill 96 is not the right one."

But the First Nations leaders at the National Assembly Tuesday say it is not the Quebec government's role to protect Indigenous languages — but to respect their communities' right to govern themselves.

Sylvain Roy Roussel/CBC

"What the government should be doing is recognizing and respecting Indigenous languages and cultures that have been here longer than Quebec," Sky-Deer said.

An elder and knowledge keeper from Kahnawake, Ka'nahsohon Kevin Deer, was part of the group holding the news conference. He held a Two Row Wampum Belt, saying it was important to remind Quebecers of its meaning.

"Your ancestors and our ancestors agreed that we would follow three principles of peace, friendship and respect," Deer said.

"We are still here today. Our ceremonies, our languages, our creation stories — everything that makes us unique in the world, just like Quebec. They talk about their distinctness. Well, we are too."

Sky-Deer, the Kahnawake Grand Chief, said she would like to see a complete exemption from Bill 96 for Indigenous people because several other provisions in the proposed legislation could harm members of her community, such as those pertaining to small businesses and court proceedings.

Echoes of the past

Meanwhile at the protest, Grade 11 student Cash Rice-Rossetti held a banner as hundreds marched from the Kahnawake Survival School, a high school established in 1978 in reaction to Bill 101.

"Our language is already suppressed enough as it is. We don't have a lot of first-language speakers," said Cash, who says French is taught as a third language at his school.

CBC

He said he was considering studying outside of province after high school.

"If this law gets passed, there might be no options for me in Quebec."

Kahnawake Survival School's mission, as stated on its website, is "to produce proud and self-sufficient Kanien'kehá:ka youth through a powerful curriculum based on Kanien'kehá:ka language, beliefs, and traditions."

Robin Delaronde, the director of education at the Kahnawà:ke Education Centre, was one of 300 high school students who walked out of their school in 1978 to protest Bill 101.

"It's so concerning, after all those years, to think that we have to once again fight the impositions that are put against us," Delaronde said, marching alongside the students Tuesday.

Help heal Indigenous residential school trauma, public safety minister tells RCMP

Tue, May 10, 2022, 

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is directing the head of the RCMP to work closely with Indigenous communities to address the traumatic legacy of residential schools.

In a new mandate letter issued to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, Mendicino instructs the national police force to proactively disclose documents, help uncover truths and allow for alternative forms of investigation as communities "seek justice at their own pace."

The Liberal government says the discovery of unmarked graves and burial sites near former residential schools have underscored a need to move faster on the path of reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.

In that vein, several of the minister's directions to the RCMP are aimed at fostering improved relations with Indigenous Peoples.

Mendicino says he looks forward to working with Lucki to accelerate RCMP reform over the next two years through improvement of force recruitment at all levels to better reflect the communities it serves, in particular Indigenous and Black ones.

He directs the RCMP boss to conduct an assessment of contract policing in consultation with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous partners and others, and to collaborate with partners on the "stabilization and expansion" of the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program.

The letter updates one issued to Lucki upon her appointment as commissioner in 2018.

"As you know, the prime minister has given me a mandate to act in several important areas, and many of these touch upon the work of the RCMP," Mendicino writes. "Most notably, he has asked me to prioritize policing reform."

The minister says his central objectives are ensuring the RCMP meets the needs of Canadians, addressing systemic racism, eliminating harassment and discrimination, and creating a culture of accountability, diversity and inclusion.

In newly issued mandate letters to other agency heads in his portfolio, Mendicino instructs:

— Canadian Security Intelligence Service director David Vigneault to support broader efforts to safeguard economic security, including research and intellectual property, as well as address threats to democratic institutions by investigating all forms of ideologically motivated violent extremism such as those driven by worldviews based on xenophobia and opposition to authority;

— Canada Border Services Agency president John Ossowski to combat the trafficking of firearms and illicit drugs, and address irregular migration by increasing the efficiency of asylum claim processing;

— Correctional Service of Canada commissioner Anne Kelly to support the government's work to address systemic racism and the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous people in the justice system, as well as create a new position of deputy commissioner for Indigenous corrections.

Among the tasks outlined in his letter to the RCMP's Lucki, Mendicino solicits support for measures to counter the smuggling of handguns and the implementation of a buyback program for prohibited firearms.

He also requests help in ensuring the RCMP's management advisory board is fully supported as it takes on a greater oversight role.

"Victims of intimate partner violence deserve our protection," Mendicino writes.

To that end, he asks Lucki to work with chief firearms officers across Canada so that they respond without delay to calls from Canadians who have safety concerns about anyone who has access to firearms, and to work with police of jurisdiction to remove firearms quickly as needed.

In addition, Lucki is asked to provide awareness and training on the importance of recording incidents involving dangerous behaviour and firearms. "This work will also involve implementing new procedures and educational tools in close partnership with community groups, women's shelters and organizations, academia and more."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

RCMP cleared border blockades without Emergencies Act powers, committee hears

Tue, May 10, 2022, 5:26 p.m.·1 min read


OTTAWA — RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says powers afforded to police by the government's invoking of the Emergencies Act were not used to clear blockades at Canadian border crossings.

Lucki's comments are part of a virtual appearance at a House of Commons committee studying how the powers were used after the government invoked the powers for the first time.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government planned to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 in response to blockades at border crossings and in the streets of Ottawa.

The blockades were organized by the Freedom Convoy in protest of COVID-19 restrictions, vaccine mandates and Trudeau's government.

At the time, Trudeau pointed to the economic impact to Canada's trade at the border as one of the justifications for invoking the act.

Lucki says RCMP removed the blockades at the border without the powers offered under the act, though she says the Emergencies Act may have motivated some protesters to leave.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

iPod RIP: How Apple's music player transformed an industry



The device helped supercharge Apple into a global consumer company

Joseph BOYLE and Jules Bonnard
Wed, May 11, 2022, 

At the height of its powers the pocket-sized music player known as the iPod shifted tens of millions of units each year, helping Apple to conquer the globe and transforming the music industry.

But that was the mid-2000s –- a lifetime ago in the tech industry. After years of declining sales, the US tech giant announced on Tuesday it was stopping production after 21 years.

"Clearly this was one of the products that Apple launched that completely changed our lives," Francisco Jeronimo of analysis firm IDC told AFP.

Social media was awash with emotional tributes under the banner "iPod RIP".


"Noooo, iPod touch, you were too pure for this world!" tweeted entrepreneur Anil Dash.

"Goodnight, sweet prince. You won't be forgotten," tweeted Apple enthusiast Federico Viticci.

The device began life in 2001 with the promise of "putting 1,000 songs in your pocket".

At $400 it was hardly cheap.

But its 5GB of storage outstripped the competition, its mechanical wheel was instantly iconic and it allowed a constant stream of music uncoupled from conventional albums.

In the following years, prices came down, storage space grew, colours and models proliferated and sales exploded.

- 'We folded' -

"It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry," Apple founder Steve Jobs said of the iPod in 2007.

Few would disagree.

Digital music was still in its infancy and closely associated with piracy.

File-sharing platform Napster had horrified the industry by dispensing with any idea of paying the record companies or musicians.

Against this background, Apple managed to persuade record company bosses to sanction the sale of individual tracks for 99 cents.

"We folded because we had no leverage," Albhy Galuten, an executive at Universal Music Group at the time, told the New York Times on Tuesday.

For years, bands from AC/DC to the Beatles and Metallica refused to allow Apple to sell their music.

But the industry has since found a way to stay hugely profitable and even embrace technology like streaming.

It was the first legal model for digital music, industry expert Marc Bourreau told AFP.

After the initial shock to the system, he said the industry has learnt to embrace -- and monetise -- technology.

"People are now spending money in ways they weren’t before," said Bourreau, highlighting money from streaming.

"By this logic, the music industry is doing just fine."

- Musical glasses -

But the writing was on the wall for the iPod as early as 2007 when Jobs launched the iPhone.

With theatrical flair, he told an expectant audience the new product was an "iPod, a phone and an internet communicator".

He was lighting a fire under his own product even though at the time it accounted for roughly 40 percent of Apple's revenue, according to analysis by Statista.

Five years later, the iPod's revenue share had plunged below 10 percent and it was being outsold by the iPhone.

People no longer needed both products in their lives, and Apple no longer needed both in its portfolio.

"I don't see why people would buy music players in the future," said Jeronimo.

"Music players are now a feature of other devices – in cars, smart speakers, watches, even in smart glasses."

The iPod and all its imitators seem likely to follow the Sony Walkman into a long twilight of nostalgic fandom and eBay listings of products from a bygone era.

jxb/rl

Polish editor and former dissident wins top Spanish prize


Michnik spent six years in jail for his efforts to end Poland's repressive regime 

(AFP/JANEK SKARZYNSKI) 

Wed, May 11, 2022,

Polish editor Adam Michnik, a leading communist-era dissident, was Wednesday awarded Spain's prestigious Princess of Asturias communications and humanities prize.

The jury honoured the 75-year-old editor-in-chief of Warsaw-based daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza "for his commitment to quality journalism and for his influence in restoring and defending democracy in Poland".

A member of the Solidarity trade union that led the Polish struggle against communist rule since it was founded in 1980, he spent six years in jail for his efforts to end his country's repressive regime.

After Poland's communist leaders were toppled in a 1989 election, Michnik took a seat in parliament and co-founded Gazeta Wyborcza, which is now one of Eastern Europe's most popular newspapers.

The jury noted that he is an authority on Russian politics who has "closely followed" Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "being highly critical of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin's decisions and acts".

In a statement, Michnik said he saw the award as "an appreciation of the democratic opposition in Poland" as well as "an appreciation of Gazeta Wyborcza, which has learnt a lot from Spanish free media".

Previous winners of the award include US feminist icon Gloria Steinem and Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of "Super Mario Bros".

The 50,000-euro ($53,000) award is one of eight Asturias prizes handed out yearly by a foundation named for Crown Princess Leonor.

Other categories include social sciences, sport and scientific research.

The awards are presented each autumn in the northern city of Oviedo in a ceremony broadcast live on Spanish television.

al-tpe/ds/