HINDUTVA/HINDU NATIONALIST CENSORSHIP

India considering appeals panel with power to reverse Facebook, Twitter and YouTube content moderation decisions


Manish Singh
Mon, June 6, 2022, 

India is proposing to create an appeals panel with the veto power to reverse content moderation decisions of social media firms, it said Monday evening, republishing the draft changes to the IT rules after quietly withdrawing it last week.

If enacted, it would be the first time globally that a nation creates an appeals panel of this kind. New Delhi, which is currently seeking public comments on the proposal with a 30-day deadline, said the new amendment "will not impact early stage or growth stage Indian companies or startups," in a relief for local giants such as Dailyhunt, ShareChat and Koo.

India is the largest market of YouTube and Facebook by user count and a key overseas region for Twitter.

According to the current law, content moderation decisions by social media giants such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can only be appealed to a court. India’s Ministry of IT and Electronics said in a statement that proposed “new accountability standards” are aimed at ensuring that the “constitutional rights of Indian citizens are not contravened by any Big-tech Platform.”

"A number of intermediaries have acted in violation of constitutional rights of Indian citizens," the ministry added.

The proposed amendments to the IT rules follows a remarkable few years for U.S. tech giants that have already been pushed to appoint and share contact details of grievance redressal officers to timely address on-ground concerns and coordinate with law enforcement officials.

“These rules have succeeded in creating a new sense of accountability amongst Intermediaries to their users especially within Big Tech platforms,” the ministry said.

Google, Twitter, Meta and many other firms already fully or partially comply with the IT rules, which came into effect last year.

The rules also require significant social media firms operating encrypted messaging services to devise a way to trace the originator of messages for special cases. Several firms, including Facebook’s WhatsApp and Signal, have not complied with this requirement. WhatsApp last year sued the Indian government over this requirement.

Twitter faced backlash from the government last year over its decision to not block some accounts and tweets that New Delhi deemed objectionable. The heat followed the company’s top executive vacating the position to pursue a different role within the firm.

New Delhi-based digital rights advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation, which has expressed grave concerns about the IT rules, calling them "anti-democratic and unconstitutional," said in a statement that the proposed changes “only perpetuates the already existing illegalities.”

U.S. Supreme Court seeks Biden views on WhatsApp 'Pegasus' spyware dispute

Mon, June 6, 2022
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked President Joe Biden's administration to weigh in on whether the justices should hear a case on whether Meta Platforms Inc's WhatsApp can pursue a lawsuit accusing Israel's NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spy software.

The justices are considering NSO's appeal of a lower court's decision allowing the lawsuit to move forward. NSO has argued that it is immune from being sued because it was acting as an agent for unidentified foreign governments when it installed the "Pegasus" spyware.

WhatsApp has said the software was used for the surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to file a brief offering its views on the legal issue.

Meta Platforms is the parent of WhatsApp and Facebook and was known as Facebook Inc when the suit was filed. WhatsApp in October 2019 sued NSO seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission six months earlier to install the Pegasus software on the targeted people's mobile devices. NSO has argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security.

NSO appealed a trial judge's July 2020 refusal to award it "conduct-based immunity," a common-law doctrine protecting foreign officials acting in their official capacity.

Upholding that ruling last November, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called it an "easy case" because NSO's mere licensing of Pegasus and offering technical support did not shield it from liability under a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which took precedence over common law.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

POLL NUMBERS WORSE THAN BIDEN'S 

Trust in Government Hovers Near All-Time Low: Poll

Michael Rainey Mon, June 6, 2022, 

In 1964, 77% of Americans said they believe the federal government does the right thing for the most part, but that proved to be a high-water mark for trust in government and the number has fallen steadily since then.

The latest data from Pew Research show that just 20% of Americans now trust the federal government to “do what is right just about always/most of the time,” demonstrating a deep skepticism about government that has persisted for decades.

The numbers over time are driven in part by partisan factors, with Republicans and Democrats expressing more trust in government when their party controls the executive branch (see the chart below). But the long-term trend is downward, and even now, with President Biden in the White House, just 29% of Democrats say they trust the government most of the time — and just 9% of Republicans agree. Just 6% of Americans say the phrase “careful with taxpayer money” describes the federal government extremely or very well and only 21% say it describes the government somewhat well.

On some measures, there is more partisan agreement, but the results are no more encouraging. Overall, 65% of poll respondents said they think politicians are mostly out for themselves. For Republicans, that number is 66%, while for Democrats it’s 63%.

At the same time, though, Americans say they think government has an important role to play in society — and could be doing more. For example, a majority of respondents (69%) say the government is doing too little to help middle-income people, and about the same number (66%) say the same about help for low-income people. On the other hand, most (61%) think high-income people receive too much help.

Even larger majorities see a role for government in a variety of areas, including keeping the county safe from terrorism (90%), managing immigration (85%), ensuring safe food and medicine (82%), responding to natural disasters (80%) and strengthening the economy (78%).

REASON VS RHETORIC
Fox Host Kennedy Rebukes Kayleigh McEnany’s Advice for Drug Abusers

Justin Baragona
Mon, June 6, 2022

Fox News

Fox News host Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery on Monday pushed back against her network colleagues’ outrage over so-called “harm reduction” programs, which are designed to prevent and reduce overdose deaths by de-stigmatizing illicit drug use and addiction.

Notably, Kennedy took issue with former Trump spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany’s embrace of the Reagan-era mantra “Just Say No,” pointing out that “doesn’t work” for people who are already dealing with drug addiction.

During his HBO show Real Time on Friday night, Bill Maher—who has become a conservative media hero in recent months—raged against the New York City Health Department’s latest ad campaign encouraging users to test their drugs, avoid using alone, and take safety precautions. Additionally, he took shots at San Francisco’s similar approach to harm reduction.


“OK, that’s the first thing it says. Yes, this is part of the problem of losing civilization. Shame is part of life,” Maher groused on Friday night about the NYC ad telling users not to “be ashamed” they are using.

“We do this to everything. Toxic positivity. ‘Everything is positive.’ Everything is not positive. You should be ashamed that you are using, that might help you to stop,” added the pot-smoking comedian and longtime marijuana legalization advocate.

Applauding Maher on Monday’s broadcast of Outnumbered, McEnany noted that “all too often” she finds herself saying the late-night comic “has a point.” At the same time, lone male panelist Brian Kilmeade said he’s able to use “two or three clips” from Maher every week on Fox & Friends even though the HBO host is supposedly “liberal to the core.”

The rest of the hosts then took turns railing against the NYC campaign, with Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner going so far as to say that “it’s almost like China is writing the talking points” as they’re “happy” to keep Americans “hooked” due to being the largest manufacturer of fentanyl.

“I read this one part and maybe we shouldn’t be doing this right now,” Faulkner added. “I’m confused. What does it mean to take turns? How does that help anybody?”

Kennedy, however, offered up an endorsement of the harm-reduction programs, which largely focus on education campaigns and overdose prevention centers that provide addicts safe places to use drugs under medical supervision.

“I’ll tell you. Unfortunately, I know people who have overdosed from fentanyl and it’s tragic. The point of these is to prevent more loss of life,” the libertarian host responded. “You don’t want people to die. Of course, we don’t want people using drugs that are going to kill them.”

She continued: “People are still using drugs. You can have all of the ‘Just Say No’ and DARE programs that you want, it’s not going to keep people from using drugs.”

Kennedy explained that one benefit of drug users “taking turns” is that others can see if what they are injecting is safe and react accordingly, especially if the drugs are laced with fentanyl. While the rest of the panel offered their objections, she further pointed out that the presence of fentanyl strips and naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, could be life-saving.

“Do you want people to not use drugs? Yes, that’s the ultimate ideal. But nothing that the government has done so far has kept people from using drugs,” Kennedy passionately declared.

“I prefer ‘Just Say No,’” McEnany shot back.

“That works for you and that’s great. For people who are already addicted, it doesn’t work,” Kennedy retorted.

She added that this was also “for teenagers who are dumb enough to try it for the first time,” exclaiming that “I hope to god my kids are not in that position, but if they are, I hope someone has Narcan and I hope they have fentanyl sticks to catch it.”

McEnany waved off Kennedy’s responses, of course, claiming there was still “no safe way to use” the drugs. Kilmeade then snarked that this was the same thing as “going drinking” making sure to bring “the paddles ’cause you could have a heart attack.”

Without missing a beat, Kennedy flatly replied: “Or make sure you drink plenty of water and eat protein before drinking so you don’t get sick.”

California's 'Methuselah' bristlecone pine may no longer be the world's oldest tree


Felicia Alvarez
Mon, June 6, 2022

The 4,853-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine tree known as Methuselah grows in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of Inyo County. 

(Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency)

Scientists have discovered a new contender for the oldest tree in the world, potentially bumping California’s ancient bristlecone pine tree from the top spot.

The state's “Methuselah” bristlecone pine tree has been considered one of the oldest living trees on Earth since its rings were counted in 1957. The tree, located high in the White Mountains of Inyo County near Bishop, is estimated to be 4,853 years old.

Researchers in Chile, however, recently identified a new challenger to the world’s oldest tree from the depths of a ravine in Chile’s Alerce Costero National Park.

The tree, dubbed the “Alerce Milenario” or “Gran Abuelo,” may be more than 5,000 years old, according to a new report in Science magazine. Jonathan Barichivich, a scientist from Chile who specializes in dendrochronology, and his colleague Antonio Lara announced their findings last month. Dendrochronology is the study of tracking tree age by using growth rings.

In 1993, Lara and a colleague discovered an alerce tree stump in Chile that was more than 3,622 years old, placing alerce trees above giant sequoias as among the oldest trees in the world. In 2020, Lara and Barichivich returned to the forest to take a sample from the Alerce Milenario.

The claim of the 5-millennia-old tree may be met with skepticism from the scientific community, however, as the estimate of the tree’s age does not involve a full out of tree growth rings, according to Science.

Instead of taking a full core sample of the tree's rings, Barichivich and Lara used an increment borer to draw a narrow plug of wood from the tree. The partial sample of the tree’s wood showed about 2,400 growth rings.

Barichivich then compiled a statistical analysis to estimate the age range of the tree, according to Science. The model compiled complete core samples and environmental factors. According to Barichivich’s findings, which have not been published yet, the tree was estimated to be about 5,484 years old and had an 80% chance of being more than 5,000 years old.

Russia’s Crude Oil Revenues Take a Hit Even as Exports Swell

Julian Lee
Mon, June 6, 2022


(Bloomberg) -- Russia is earning less from its oil exports, even as seaborne crude shipments surge to a six-week high. That’s because of the big discounts that Moscow is having to offer Asian buyers to snap up barrels shunned by Europe, which translate into a drop in export duties.

Overall seaborne crude shipments jumped in the seven days to June 3, rising to their highest since late April. A total of 38 tankers loaded 27.6 million barrels from the country’s export terminals, vessel-tracking data and port agent reports show. That put average flows at 3.94 million barrels a day, up by 10% from 3.58 million in the week ended May 27.

The European Union finally adopted a package of sanctions on oil imports from Russia on June 2, following its late-February invasion of Ukraine. The ban on crude purchases, which doesn’t come into force until Dec. 5, is limited to volumes shipped by sea and excludes deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline system. Poland and Germany have committed to end their imports of piped Russian crude, even without an EU ban, leaving Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as the sole buyers. That should cut deliveries to Europe by about 90% of last year’s level, according to data from Russian pipeline operator Transneft PJSC.

While self-sanctioning of Russian crude by European companies has already diverted significant crude volumes to Asia, so far it is having little impact on the overall level of crude shipments. About 660,000 barrels a day of Russian crude was discharged at Indian ports in May, up from about 270,000 barrels a day the previous month.

Flows of Urals crude from terminals in the Baltic, Russia’s primary outlet, rebounded in the week to June 3, rising by 417,000 barrels a day, or 29%, to their highest level in three weeks. The increase was partly offset by lower volumes from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, where flows fell by 57,000 barrels a day, or 7%. Flows from Russia’s Arctic and Pacific export terminals were unchanged from the previous week.

While shipped volumes increased in the week to June 3, Moscow’s revenue from export duty moved in the opposite direction, falling by $9 million, or 5%, to $162 million. The dip in revenue reflects a lower per-barrel rate of export duty on shipments made in June.

Duty rates fell by 10% between May and June, dropping to $44.80 a ton, equivalent to about $6.11 a barrel, from $49.60 a ton, or $6.81 a barrel, in May. That’s down from $61.20 a ton, or $8.30 a barrel in April. Duty rates have now fallen by 27% since April, reflecting the steep discounts that Russia is being forced to offer to secure new buyers for its crude in Asia.

The number of cargoes shipped from Russian ports rose by four to 38 in the week to June 3 compared with the previous seven days. More ships departed from ports in the Baltic, while the numbers of shipments from all other regions remained unchanged.

There was only one shipment of Sokol crude from the Pacific port of De Kastri in May. Three Russian-owned shuttle tankers that regularly carry the grade are anchored empty off the loading terminal.

Crude Flows by Region

The following charts show the destinations of crude cargoes from each of the four export regions. Destinations are based on where vessels signal they are heading at the time of writing, and some will almost certainly change as voyages progress.

The volume of crude on ships loading from the Baltic terminals at Primorsk and Ust-Luga rebounded in the week to June 3. The volumes on tankers showing destinations in northwest Europe rose to a seven-week high, with now rare deliveries to Finland and Poland. Shipments from the Baltic to the Mediterranean dropped to an 11-week low, while the volume on tankers signaling destinations in Asia were the lowest in six weeks.

Both those figures are likely to rise, though, with more than one-quarter of the crude exported from the Baltic on ships that are yet to signal a final destination. Most of those are expected to head either to the Mediterranean or Asia.

Crude shipments from Russia’s Baltic ports are still going according to plan. All cargoes scheduled to load at Primorsk and Ust-Luga during the week to June 3 were shipped within a day of their planned loading dates.

Eight tankers completed loading at Novorossiysk in the Black Sea in the week to June 3, equaling the largest weekly number of vessels handled at the terminal so far this year. Most crude remained within the Black Sea region, with shipments to Bulgaria and Romania rising for a third week to reach their highest level for the year. Shipments to Asia were little changed, with two vessels heading to India.

All of the cargoes scheduled from Novorossiysk during the week loaded within two days of the dates on loading programs seen by Bloomberg.

Two ships loaded from Gazprom Neft’s Umba floating storage facility at Murmansk, one heading for Rotterdam and the other to India. A third vessel took a cargo from the Kola storage tanker used by Lukoil and is heading to the company’s ISAB refinery on the Italian island of Sicily.

Combined shipments from Russia’s western export terminals that are on tankers signaling destinations in Asia fell to 800,000 barrels a day in the week to June 3, down by 430,000 barrels a day from a revised 1.23 million barrels a day the previous week. But another 520,000 barrels a day are on vessels that are yet to show a final destination, so that figure is almost certain to be revised higher once destinations become apparent.

Crude flows from Russia’s three eastern oil terminals were stable during the week to June 3, with no shipments of Sokol from De Kastri for a fourth straight week.

Eight tankers loaded ESPO crude at Kozmino, unchanged from the previous two weeks. China is emerging as virtually the only buyer of Russia’s Pacific crude grades. Three vessels that loaded in the week to June 3 are currently anchored off Yeosu in South Korea, where they are expected to complete ship-to-ship transfers to Chinese supertankers. All three are owned by China’s Cosco Shipping Holdings Co., whose ships are increasingly used to shuttle ESPO crude from Kozmino to Yeosu, where it is transshipped onto larger vessels, also owned by Cosco, for onward delivery to China.

There were no shipments for a third week from De Kastri, which handles Sokol crude from the Sakhalin 1 project. Three Sovcomflot tankers have been anchored empty off the oil terminal since late April, with just one cargo loaded in the first week of May and delivered to Dalian in China.

One cargo of Sakhalin Blend crude was loaded from the terminal at the southern end of the island. Like all those from Kozmino, it is heading to China.

Long Voyages and Cargo Transfers

The number of tankers heading from Russia’s western export terminals to unknown destinations rose in the week to June 3. Five ships are showing destinations as Port Said, a regular signal for ships intending to transit the Suez Canal, while the same number are showing either no destination, or signaling somewhere that is clearly not where they will discharge their cargo.

Several tankers that loaded in earlier weeks are still not showing final destinations, with most continuing to indicate Port Said.

The Aframax tanker Zhen I transferred its cargo of about 100,000 tons of Urals crude to the VLCC Lauren II. While most such transfers take place in sheltered near-shore waters, this one was unusual as it was conducted in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, according to ship-tracking data. The transfer was done in waters about 300 miles west of the island of Madeira between May 26 and 27. The Lauren II remains drifting in the area, perhaps waiting for another cargo of Russian crude. The Afrapearl tanker is showing its destination as Acores, the Portuguese spelling of the Azores, a group of islands to the west of Madeira. Based on its destination signal, it too may transfer its cargo to the Lauren II sometime around the middle of June.

Note: This story forms part of a regular weekly series tracking shipments of crude from Russian export terminals and the export duty revenues earned from them by the Russian government.

Note: Bloomberg uses commercial ship-tracking data to monitor the movement of vessels. Ships can avoid detection by turning off on-board transponders, as has been done widely by the Iranian tanker fleet. There is no evidence yet that this is being done by crude oil tankers calling at Russian ports.

Note: Destinations are those signaled by the vessel and are monitored until the cargo is discharged. Destinations may change during a voyage, even under normal circumstances, and the final discharge point for the cargo may not be known until that port is reached.

Note: Cargo volumes are based on loading programs, where those are available, and on a combination of the ship’s capacity and its depth in the water where we have no other information.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Palestinians protest against soaring prices ahead of strike


Palestinians protest against rising of prices in the West Bank


Mon, June 6, 2022

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian police made a number of arrests on Monday as protests against soaring prices for food and other necessities spread a day ahead of a planned strike to demand action from the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

Lawyers said at least‮ ‬nine people had been detained and police removed a number of tents set up in the street by protesters, who are calling for a general strike in Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

A spokesman for the Palestinian security services did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"We urge the government to intervene to put an end to this mad hike in prices," said Rami Al-Jnaidi, one of the organisers of the protest.

"If the government is unable or is unwilling to intervene, we will be calling for its departure," he told Reuters.

The surge in food and energy prices seen across the world in recent weeks has hit the West Bank hard, adding to tensions in an area which has seen weeks of violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians.

As the war in Ukraine has sent commodities prices surging, the cost of basic food items such as flour, sugar, and cooking oil has gone up by as much as 30% since March, according to merchants and protesters.

Official figures released by the Palestinian Central Statistics Bureau put the increase at between 15 and 18 percent.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, already exempted wheat from tax rises introduced in February and says it has been monitoring markets closely to prevent manipulation of market prices.

Protesters have demanded that tax exemptions be extended to other basic staples but the Authority's room for manoeuvre is limited by budget constraints. It has yet to pay the May salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Israeli coalition suffers loss, faces uncertain prospects











Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett makes a call before voting on a law on the legal status of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, during a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, June 6, 2022. 

(AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)



JOSEF FEDERMAN
Mon, June 6, 2022, 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s government on Monday failed to pass a bill extending legal protections for settlers in the occupied West Bank, marking a major setback for the fragile coalition that could hasten its demise and send the country to new elections.

The failure to renew the bill also highlighted the separate legal systems in the West Bank, where nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers enjoy the benefits of Israeli citizenship while some 3 million Palestinians live under military rule that is now well into its sixth decade. Three major human rights groups have said the situation amounts to apartheid, an allegation Israel rejects as an assault on its legitimacy.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s coalition remains in power. But Monday’s vote underscored the weaknesses and divisions in the fragile alliance and raised questions about how long it can survive.

Emergency regulations in place for decades have created a separate legal system for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, applying parts of Israeli law to them — even though they live in occupied territory and not within sovereign Israeli land.

These regulations expire at the end of the month and if they are not renewed, that legal system, which Israel has cultivated for its settlers in the West Bank since it captured the territory in 1967, will be thrown into question. It could also change the legal status of the 500,000 settlers living there.

Proponents of extending the law say they are merely seeking to maintain a status quo and preserve the government’s shelf life. Opponents say extending the regulations would deepen an unfair system.

However, Monday's vote — defeated by a 58-52 margin — went far beyond the contours of the legal debate. Instead, it served as a key test of the government’s prospects for survival, creating a paradoxical situation where some of the settlements’ biggest opponents in the government voted for the bill, while hard-line parties that support the settlements voted against it in order to weaken the government.

The coalition, made up of eight ideologically distinct parties that include both supporters and opponents of the settlements, came together last year and pledged to sidestep divisive issues that could threaten its survival. Monday’s vote showed just how difficult that mission has been.

The vote did not immediately topple the government, and it is still possible for the coalition to present a modified version of the legislation.

“As always after we lose, we will return stronger and win in the next round,” said Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, the chief architect of the governing alliance, in a statement on Twitter.

But the setback indicated the government’s days could be numbered. One of the coalition’s members, the nationalist New Hope, has already threatened to bolt if the coalition cannot pass the measure. If New Hope leaves, it could give the opposition the votes it needs to trigger new elections or form a new government.

“Any coalition member who doesn’t vote for this law that is so central is an active participant in its demise,” Justice Minister Gideon Saar, leader of New Hope, said before the vote.

He also warned that defeating the bill would create “legal chaos” in the West Bank and harm Israeli settlers.

The votes of certain lawmakers, including renegade hard-liners in the coalition as well as Ra'am, an Arab Islamist group that made history as the first Arab party to join an Israeli coalition, were closely watched. In many cases, these lawmakers did not attend the vote.

The opposition meanwhile, made up mainly of nationalist parties led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, showed its willingness to forsake its pro-settlement ideology in order to bring down the coalition.

Bennett's Yamina party issued a statement accusing Netanyahu and his Likud party of banding together with leftist settlement opponents to serve the former prime minister's personal interests. “The Likud will burn the state for Netanyahu's needs,” it said, vowing to find a way to pass the required legislation.

Bennett has faced hurdles before. Idit Silman, the coalition whip from Bennett’s small, nationalist party, quit the coalition earlier this year, leaving the government with 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset — surviving immediate defeat but struggling to govern. Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, another legislator from Meretz also quit, but later rejoined after being promised a raft of benefits for her constituents, Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In the end, Silman skipped Monday's vote, while Zoabi bucked her coalition partners and voted against the bill, giving a thumbs-down as she cast her vote.

Bennett’s government came together last year after two years of political mayhem, with four elections producing no clear winner. The eight coalition members were united by their goal of ousting Netanyahu — the longtime prime minister who now heads the opposition, from where he is battling corruption charges — and have sought to work around their issues to keep him out of power.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not recognized internationally and pulled out troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. But hundreds of thousands of Israelis reside in over 120 settlements dotting the West Bank, along with more than 2.5 million Palestinians.

Since Israel has never annexed the territory, it technically remains under military rule, creating a bewildering legal reality. For Jewish settlers in the West Bank, most of Israel’s criminal and civilian laws apply. They vote in Israeli elections, enlist for compulsory military service and pay their taxes to the state.

Palestinians, meanwhile, are subject to a different set of laws, adding to the confusion — and often inequality.

If the government does not find a new solution in the coming weeks, settlers will automatically fall under military rule, like Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Emmanuel Gross, an Israeli expert on criminal and international law and a former military judge.

Basic, everyday relations between settlers and the state will crumble: Israel won’t be able to levy taxes and police won’t be able to investigate criminal offences, among other things, Gross said. The status of Palestinian inmates being held in Israeli prisons will also be challenged, as Israel uses this same set of emergency regulations to hold prisoners outside of occupied land.

“The entire legal basis of what happens with the settlers today will be cancelled. This can cause chaos,” he said, adding that he expected the government would find a way to ensure the regulations are extended.

___

Associated Press correspondent Emily Rose contributed reporting.

Is carbon removal a realistic climate solution?


Mike Bebernes
·Senior Editor
Sun, June 5, 2022
“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.

What’s happening

Humans have pumped so much carbon into the air that climate experts now believe even a dramatic reduction in fossil fuel emissions won’t be enough. They say we’ll also have to remove some of the carbon that’s already in the atmosphere if we want to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Plants do this naturally, but most scientists say the sheer volume of carbon that must be sucked out of the air means that simply planting more trees won’t be enough. That view has led to huge investment into potential technologies that — if proven effective and utilized at a massive scale — could help achieve global climate goals in the coming decades.

In the past few years, huge sums of money have been invested into what’s known as Direct Air Capture (DAC), a controversial new process that uses giant fans to drive air into facilities that use chemical reactions to pull carbon out of the air and store it — either in the ground or repurposed to create certain products.

There are currently about 20 DAC plants in operation around the world. Together, they are capable of pulling roughly 0.01 million metric tons of CO2 out of the air per year, a tiny fraction of 980 million metric tons that will be needed each year by 2050, according to an estimate from the International Energy Agency.

Last month, the Department of Energy announced a plan to provide $3.5 billion to fund the construction of four new DAC plants in the United States. There has also been massive private investment in the technology, including from Google, Facebook, Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, and a long list of major investment firms.

Why there’s debate

Despite the dire predictions of what will happen without carbon removal and the potential promise of the technology, there’s deep division among experts over whether Direct Air Capture is a legitimate answer to the world’s climate challenges.

Advocates say that although the industry is in its infancy, DAC is the only proven method we have to pull from the air the carbon that is needed to meaningfully change the course of climate change. They note the huge investment in the development of new plants as a sign that there’s a strong desire from both governments and businesses to rapidly ramp up carbon removal efforts and argue that the process will become more significantly efficient and affordable over time, as more companies join the industry. Others make the case that, even though there are reasons to doubt that the dreams of DAC optimists are achievable, the climate situation is so dire that we need to go all-in on every solution that seems even remotely possible.

There are many skeptics, though. Some scientists argue that it’s unlikely that there will ever be enough DAC plants to make a significant dent in the world’s carbon output — one expert estimated that the largest plant currently in operation can only capture “three seconds worth of humanity’s CO2 emissions” in a year. Another issue, they say, is that carbon capture may never achieve the level of sustained investment that other green technologies have, because it doesn’t produce an end product that can be sold for profit.

Others worry that the promise of carbon removal may be used as an excuse to delay the transition from fossil fuels, which is widely viewed as the single most important step toward curbing climate change. There are also practical concerns about the damage that could be caused to the environment and vulnerable communities by the existence of hundreds of DAC plants around the globe.

Perspectives

Optimists

Carbon removal should be a core element of any plan to meet our climate goals

“Even as we stop making the problem worse, we’ll still need to clean up the mess made so far. Environmentally just carbon removal is a potentially powerful tool that can help stop the worst impacts of climate change by removing legacy emissions from the atmosphere.” — Jasmine Sanders, The Hill

Carbon removal may fail, but we have no choice but to try

“I don't think carbon capture is a silver bullet, because there is no silver bullet. … We're going to need everything, especially because we're already behind on our goals.” — Nadine Mustafa, energy technology researcher, to CNN

The only way to know if DAC plants will work at scale is to build them

“The only way to really know how these systems perform in practice, is to go build them,” said David Victor, public policy researcher, to Grist

Carbon removal will fail if it’s controlled by for-profit companies

“Public carbon removal is the clear choice. The federal government can begin this transition now by ensuring that any infrastructure built using the billions of federal dollars going out the door is owned either by the government or directly by communities. … We can collectively build a justice- and worker-centered public model for deploying this climate-critical infrastructure.” — Andrew Bergman, New Republic

Skeptics

Right now, the business model for carbon removal is unproven

“All these efforts face an acute problem: No one wants to buy this stuff. Philanthropists and government agencies have long offered prizes for various carbon-removal benchmarks. And inchoate efforts are underway to turn stored carbon dioxide into something economically useful. Yet none of these efforts amounts to a sustainable business. That, too, may be about to change.” — Editorial, Bloomberg

It’s dangerous to assume carbon removal will work

“I'm rooting for it, but only a fool would bet the planet on it. … The problem isn't that the technology sucks — it probably gets better (though there are thermodynamic limits as to how better). The problem is that policymakers are including it in climate ‘planning’ as if it already works. That is beyond dangerous.” — Climate scientist Peter Kalmus

Promises of future carbon removal could be used as an excuse to slow the green energy transition

“There will be a risk of fossil-fuel companies and others using carbon removal as an imagined way to not shift their business models as long as we don’t have a mainstream plan for ending fossil fuels.” — Holly Buck, environment and sustainability researcher, to MIT Technology Review

Ending fossil fuel consumption is the only proven climate solution we have right now

“For now, the only guaranteed way to stave off the climate crisis is by preventing pollution in the first place.” — Justine Calma, Verge

Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in “The 360”? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com.

Photo Credit: AFP via Getty Images

New wave of anti-colonial populism sweeps Francophone Africa

Kémi Séba is a leading anti-colonial figure in Francophone Africa.

By Tom Collins
Published June 6, 2022

When Kémi Séba, a leading anti-colonial figure in Francophone Africa, last attempted to travel from his native Benin to Mali in January 2020 he was prevented from boarding the plane by Malian authorities.

At the time, Mali was under the control of president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta—a close ally to France who would not have welcomed Séba’s ability to lead large protests against the country’s former colonial ruler.

Two years later and Séba tells Quartz that he was personally invited to Mali by local authorities led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of a military junta that seized power in August 2020, to give a rousing speech against neo-colonialism in the capital city of Bamako.

“The Malian authorities regard me as an ally because they know that I have reignited Pan-Africanism in Francophone African countries,” said Séba who was kicked out of Senegal in 2017 after the government called him a “threat to public order.”

His official invitation is evidence of a new wave of anti-colonial sentiment that has taken hold in several governments across west Africa, which could have far-reaching consequences for other countries in the region and beyond.
Leading the movement

Rising to global stardom as a leading critic of the west African Franc (CFA), Séba has railed against ‘la Françafrique’ and built a grass roots platform to mobilize demonstrations across much of Francophone west Africa.

The controversial figure has over 1 million subscribers on Facebook and hundreds of thousands of followers on other social media channels.

While the international community and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) have denounced the military takeover in Mali, he praises the armed forces for responding to growing discontent with the former government

“The alliance between civil society and the military forces is a patriotic path forward and it will be the beginning of a new era in Africa,” he said.

“Democracy in the western sense has failed. Mali for me is proof that something can be different.”

Though regime changes are often viewed as self-interested power grabs by disenfranchised military leaders, the sharpening of anti-colonial thought in the region suggests that there is widespread support for undemocratic takeovers.

The rise of ‘popular coups’ in west Africa

A recent poll by the Friedrich Ebert foundation found that 68% of Malians are very satisfied with the coup, 27% are satisfied and only 5% do not support the military (link in French).

Many believe that pro-French African leaders dupe the West with promises of security, stability, and democracy only to extend term limits and use government treasuries for personal enrichment.

Similar events to Mali have unfolded in Burkina Faso and Guinea over the last year, where military leaders ejected unpopular civilian rulers.

Séba, who was born in France, described the new political structures that have taken shape in Mali and Guinea as “a combination of populist civil society groups and nationalist military elements.”

He was personally invited to meet President Mamady Doumbouya in Guinea last year, only one month after the colonel seized power in September.

The outspoken pan-Africanist believes that there will be two more regime changes in the Sahel before the year is over, most likely in Niger and Chad.

Earlier this month, anti-French protests were held in Chad’s capital city of N’Djamena with some protestors holding Russian flags.

He said that his organization, Urgences Panafricanist or Pan-African Emergency, is helping to boost support for protests in countries that are run by pro-French regimes like Niger and to a lesser extent Chad.

This is probably why Séba is public enemy number one in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal—historic centers of France’s colonial project and the two most important economies in Francophone Africa.

He called Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire’s president, a “puppet of French oligarchy” and said that it would be very hard to unseat pro-French leaders in the west African country.
Security concerns in the Sahel

The protests in Chad will add to further concerns by Western policymakers that more Francophone African countries will be taken over by military leaders that prefer to work with Russia rather than the West.

Since the military seized power in 2020, Mali’s government has steadily soured relations with France, culminating in the expulsion of the French ambassador from Bamako in January.

France retaliated by announcing a drawdown of the 5,000 French troops operating in the region as part of Operation Barkhane – a coalition of Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and France to combat jihadism.
Explaining underdevelopment in Africa is very simple. The rules set up by international institutions have put us in a straitjacket.

Richard Moncrieff, interim project director for the Sahel at Crisis Group, a think-tank to stop conflict, said that the antipathy towards France has been driven to some extent by its failure to contain the islamist threat.

“I think we have to first look at that security crisis, and the impact it has had on political thought and political opinions in the region,” he said.

“The perception is that the West and particularly France has devoted a large amount of resources to the region but the situation has become worse.”

Russia quickly stepped in to fill the gap with the ongoing delivery of military equipment and an unknown number of Wagner Group fighters—Russian paramilitary forces linked to the Kremlin—that have started security operations in the region.

The group was implicated in the massacre of over 300 people in the central Malian town of Moura in late March 2022.
Anti-colonial populism expanding elsewhere

The question now is whether anti-colonial populist governments with broad support from their citizens will become a trend that spreads to other parts of Africa.

Séba believes that it is currently mostly isolated to Francophone Africa where it is slowly gaining momentum.

Even the more internationalist regional leaders like Macky Sall, Senegal’s president, have recently suggested that he wants to overhaul financial relations with the West.

The president gave a blistering speech earlier this month at a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uncea) meeting in Dakar where he criticized the IMF for not allocating a fair portion of special drawing rights (SDRs) to the continent during the pandemic.

Africa has received only $33 billion of the $650 billion in emergency and unconditional funding issued by the IMF during covid-19, with much larger sums being allocated to developed economies like the US, Japan, China, and Germany.

“Explaining underdevelopment in Africa is very simple. The rules set up by international institutions have put us in a straitjacket. The rules are unfair, outdated, and need to be disputed,” he told delegates.

“It is time for Africa to speak out. The voices should not just be those of leaders but of finance ministers and others affected by a system that works against the continent.”

The growing dissatisfaction with Bretton Woods institutions adds to the feeling that the West has deliberately short-changed Africa in terms of access to vaccines.

Western drugmakers continue to block African manufacturing plants from producing life saving vaccines due to patent issues and vaccine donations to the continent have fallen well short of the mark.

This may have led to an increase in anti-Western sentiment in other regions outside Francophone west Africa.

Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, a non-profit dedicated to free and fair elections in Africa, said that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has increased anti-Western sentiment in Africa.

Russian flags have been flown in rallies everywhere from Ethiopia to South Africa as many Africans believe that the West’s condemnation of the invasion is hypocritical in the context of Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Experts also believe that Russia has launched a sophisticated misinformation and disinformation campaign in Africa to create support for the invasion among millions of social media users.

Nicolas Cheeseman, professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham, said that populist policies are on the rise in other parts of Africa but not to the same extent as the Sahel.

“Figures such as William Ruto in Kenya and Julius Malema in South Africa are using populism as a way to try and gain power, but at the minute it seems to be more of a tool of the opposition than the government,” he said.

Still, the populist trend in west Africa could be the start of a wider movement in Africa and activists like Séba certainly hope that recent developments reverberate across the continent.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the divisive figure has established connections with Malema in South Africa to expand the movement to Southern Africa.

Last week, hundreds of protestors from Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party gathered outside the French embassy in Pretoria, holding signs that had expletives against France. .

For a country which is not linked to French colonization, this could be a warning sign that events in the Sahel may eventually morph into something much more significant in Africa.