Alabama company charged with violations in worker’s death

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama company has been charged with willfully violating federal safety rules in the death of a worker who was pulled into a machine and fatally injured, authorities said Monday.

ABC Polymer Industries, which has a plant in the Birmingham suburb of Helena, was accused of two misdemeanor counts in the 2017 death of Catalina Estillado, court records showed.

The company makes flat plastic sheets on an assembly line that pulls material through multiple sets of large, spinning rollers, according to a statement by prosecutors.

ABC Polymer typically operated the machine without a required safety guard being engaged, the statement said, and Estillado was pulled into the spinning rollers and killed after being assigned to use a hand tool to cut away tangles.

The protections were required by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration, prosecutors alleged, but the company failed to use them despite knowing workers had been injured multiple times before.

The misdemeanor offense is the only federal criminal charge involving such workplace safety violations, prosecutors said.

An attorney for ABC Polymer Industries on Monday did not immediately return an email to The Associated Press seeking comment on the charges, which could result in a fine of as much as $500,000.

Ruling after a nonjury trial, a Shelby County judge in June awarded $3 million to Estillado’s husband, Crescendio Pablo, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit after she was killed. The company has said it would appeal the verdict to the Alabama Supreme Court.

Massachusetts art museum workers schedule 1-day strike

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) — Unionized workers at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, frustrated with the progress of contract negotiations, have authorized a one-day strike for later this week.

The workers at the North Adams museum, commonly referred to as MASS MoCA, have scheduled a strike and picket outside the museum from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Friday, according to a statement Monday.

“We have asked our members to strike because Mass MoCA has not bargained in good faith on a fair contract for the employees who make it so successful,” Maro Elliott, the museum’s manager of institutional giving and a member of the union’s negotiating committee, said in a statement. “We want an agreement with Mass MoCA that will create a more accessible, equitable and just workplace.”

The union, affiliated with the United Auto Workers Local 2110, represents about 100 full- and part-time workers, including curators, educators, administrative staff, visitors services, custodial and other workers.

The workers, citing low pay and job insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic, formed the union early last year, joining the staff of other renowned museums who have unionized, including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The museum will remain open during the one-day strike, with managers filling in at key posts, a spokesperson said.

“While we respect our employees’ right to strike as a means of expressing their views, we are also disappointed in their decision, given the positive and collaborative environment that we have worked to foster during our collective bargaining process with the UAW,” museum spokesperson Jenny Wright said in an email.

The average wage for unionized workers at the museum is $17.30 per hour, according to the union. The union wants a minimum hourly rate of $18 in a contract’s first year and raises over the next two years bringing that to about $20 per hour. The museum is offering a $16 per hour minimum with no guaranteed increases in 2023 and 2024, the union said.

In a social media post, the union asked people planning to visit the museum on Friday not to cross the picket line and to reschedule their visits. The union has also filed unfair labor practice charges against the museum with the National Labor Relations Board, citing what it calls “bad faith bargaining.”

Norway hits export record amid soaring gas prices
yesterday

FILE - The Ekofisk oil field off the North Sea in Norway, Oct. 24, 2019. Norway’s exports have reached a record in July that is driven mainly by higher natural gas prices. The Scandinavian country’s statistics agency on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022 said Norwegian exports reached 229 billion kroner ($24 billion) last month. Norway is a major producer of offshore oil and gas. 

(Carina Johansen/NTB Scanpix via AP)


STOCKHOLM (AP) — Norway’s exports reached a record in July, driven mainly by natural gas prices that have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Scandinavian country’s statistics agency on Monday said Norwegian exports reached 229 billion kroner ($24 billion) last month, 0.4% higher than the previous record set in March this year.

Norway’s trade surplus of 153.2 billion kroner ($15.8 billion) also was the highest on record.

Norway, a major producer of offshore oil and gas, has seen energy exports surge as European countries scramble to find alternatives to Russian energy in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Since the invasion, the EU has approved bans on Russian coal and most oil to take effect later this year, but it did not include Russian natural gas because the 27-nation bloc depends on gas to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has weaponized gas exports to pressure the bloc into reducing its sanctions over the war in Ukraine or to push other political aims. The EU has been left scrambling to fill gas storage ahead of winter, when demand rises and utility companies draw down their reserves to keep homes warm and power plants running.

Statistics Norway said natural gas exports reached 128 billion kroner ($13.2 billion) in July, more than four times higher than in the same month last year.

Jon Olav Roerhus, senior adviser for external trade at Statistics Norway, said reductions in Russian gas deliveries to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline contributed to soaring gas prices last month, which were “the main reason for the exceptionally high export value we are now experiencing.”

At a one-day meeting of the five Nordic leaders in Oslo, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: “We must phase out Russian gas as soon as possible.” She said Europe is “facing a challenging fall.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the Nordic countries also should focus on renewable energies, including wind and solar.

“We all struggle with increased energy prices,” said Gahr Støre, whose country and Iceland are not EU members.

“As we enter the cold winter, our populations have to understand what is at stake,” Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Higher fish and metals exports also contributed to Norway’s surge in exports.

___

Follow all AP stories on developments related to the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

U$A
Court: State can’t tax tribal lands that change hands
yesterday

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state can’t impose property taxes on tribal lands that have changed hands without congressional approval, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The decision from a three-judge panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marks another chapter in a lawsuit four Chippewa tribes from northern Wisconsin filed in 2018.

The Lac Courte Oreilles, the Lac du Flambeau, the Red Cliff and the Bad River sued after the state imposed property taxes on land within their reservations. Such land is immune from state property taxes under an 1854 treaty, but the state argued that the land is eligible because tribal members sold it to non-American Indians before the land was were sold back to tribal members.

The three-judge panel affirmed that the land isn’t taxable without congressional approval, saying only Congress can diminish tribes’ sovereignty and the treaty is best read to promise tax immunity even for reacquired lands.

The U.S. accused a Chinese MIT professor of spying. Now cleared, he helped discover what may be the ‘best semiconductor material ever found’

Nicholas Gordon

Tue, August 16, 2022 

A team of researchers has discovered what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calls the “best semiconductor material ever found," even better than silicon, the material used in just about every computer chip on earth.

In July, scientists from MIT, the University of Houston, and other institutions announced they had proved that cubic boron arsenide performs better than silicon at conducting heat and electricity, opening up new possibilities for smaller and faster chips. The team includes China-born professor Gang Chen, the former head of MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, who was the subject of a yearlong investigation by the Department of Justice before the agency dropped espionage charges because of lack of evidence.

It could be decades before semiconductors based on cubic boron arsenide are used in commercially available chips—if they prove viable at all. But ultimately, the new material may help designers overcome the natural limits of current models to make better, faster, and smaller chips, and its discovery is the kind of research the U.S. risked missing out on with a now-disbanded crackdown on experts like Chen.

Cubic boron arsenide

Despite its ubiquity in the chip industry, silicon is not the best semiconductor out there. For one, it doesn’t conduct heat very well, meaning chips and consumer devices often need to include expensive cooling systems or risk overheating.

According to the July study, cubic boron arsenide conducts heat 10 times better than silicon. “Heat is a major bottleneck for electronics,” Chen said in a press release accompanying the study, calling the new material a potential “game changer.”

The study also revealed that cubic boron arsenide is better than silicon at conducting both electrons and its positively charged counterpart, the “electron hole.” The latter is an especially glaring weakness of silicon, limiting the speed of silicon-based semiconductors.

Chip designers are starting to bump up against the natural limits of silicon in their quest for smaller and faster chips. Researchers are publicly talking about the end of Moore’s Law, the 1975 prediction by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors in a chip would double every two years, which has been a guiding star for the semiconductor industry ever since.

Researchers are exploring ways to squeeze more speed out of new computers through new materials for chips or new technologies like quantum computing. Materials like cubic boron arsenide—assuming they can be commercialized—might help designers keep making even smaller and faster computer chips.

But there’s still a long way to go until cubic boron arsenide can be used outside of the lab. The material has been made only in small batches, and researchers needed special equipment to study its properties, according to MIT.

“Silicon is the workhorse of the entire industry,” Chen said in the release, noting that scientists have spent decades developing procedures to purify silicon to the levels needed for chip manufacturing, reaching 99.99999999% purity or the so-called ten-nines level. But Chen said that if future research could overcome the barriers to industrial production, cubic boron arsenide could become “a promising candidate for next-generation electronics.”

Spying charges dropped

The study is also a significant change in fortune for one of its prominent authors, Chen, who was a high-profile target of a Trump-era initiative to investigate accusations of Chinese espionage.

The U.S. Department of Justice, through a program called the China Initiative, accused dozens of Chinese and Chinese American academics of hiding their ties to Chinese institutions in order to share advanced technologies with Beijing.

Authorities arrested Chen, who was born in China and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2000, in January 2021. He was accused of failing to disclose ties to Chinese institutions on grant applications to the Department of Energy. “This was not just about greed, but about loyalty to China,” then–U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling alleged at the time.

The scientific community, especially at MIT, strongly criticized the arrest. MIT faculty, in an open letter, wrote that “the defense of Professor Chen is the defense of the scientific enterprise that we all hold dear—we are all Gang Chen.”

The Department of Justice, under the Biden administration, dropped charges against Chen in January 2022 after DOE officials revealed that Chen was never required to make the disclosures he was accused of omitting. In a statement released when the charges were dropped, Chen accused the DOJ of continuing to bring “unwarranted fear to the academic community.”

A month after dropping Chen's case, the DOJ disbanded the China Initiative. "We helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to [China] or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic, or familial ties to China differently,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen at the time.

Scientists also argued that investigations like the one into Chen dissuaded academics—particularly those from China—from moving to the U.S., denying the U.S. the opportunity to benefit from their research. "It's scaring away talent," one MIT faculty member told WBUR in February.

Experts have pointed to the lack of skilled scientific and technical expertise as a major constraint on the U.S. drive to restore its prominence in research and development, including rebuilding its domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry. One study estimated that the U.S. would need to increase its chipmaking workforce by 50% to displace Asia as the center for chip manufacturing—talent that would need to come from overseas, including China.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Russia’s Panicked Confession: This Is What Scares Us Most

Julia Davis

DAILY BEAST
Tue, August 16, 2022

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

In a recent interview with Russian state media outlet TASS, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North American Department, Aleksandr Darichev, said that in the event the U.S. designates Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, it would represent “a point of no return” in relations between the two countries. Speaking on behalf of the country that ruthlessly invaded its smaller neighbor and is continually being accused of human rights violations and serious war crimes, Darichev shamelessly claimed on Saturday that the West, led by the United States, “has trampled upon international law and absolute taboos in diplomatic practice.”

Appearing on the state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov a day later, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova raged against the possibility of such a designation, claiming that these plans were caused by failure on the part of the U.S. to isolate Russia from the rest of the world. Zakharova derided the level of competency of the U.S. officials, questioning whether they even know how to read, since Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington of the “consequences” should the U.S. label Russia a sponsor of terror.

The bipartisan resolution to declare Russia a sponsor of terrorism passed in the Senate at the end of July, after being introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). In the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken that unless he moves ahead with the designation, Congress will pass appropriate legislation of its own accord.

Last week, the parliament of Latvia declared Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” for attacks on civilians during the war in Ukraine, urging other countries to follow suit. Rihards Kols, who chairs the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, asserted: “Russia has for many years supported and financed terrorist regimes and organizations in various ways, directly and indirectly.” To illustrate that point, Kols brought up Russia’s involvement in Syria, its downing of the MH-17 flight over eastern Ukraine in 2014, and the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the U.K.

Russia Vows Revenge at the Latest Country to Cross Putin

Lithuania adopted a similar resolution in May and Estonia may soon do so as well. The prospect of this initiative gaining global traction terrified prominent talking heads on Russian state television.

The measure would add Russia to the list of such pariah states as North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Cuba, allowing global governments to expand the list of measures and sanctions to exert further pressure against Putin’s regime, including a ban on defense exports and additional financial restrictions. Prominent pundits and experts on Russian state TV clarified that the potential designation bothers Moscow the most not because of the damage to what is left of Russia’s reputation, but for legal and financial reasons.

Watch: Russia believes Ukrainian troops are 'superhumans' created in American biolabs


Two weeks ago, Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow State University, explained why Moscow is so apoplectic about being labeled the sponsor of terrorism: “Regarding the declaration of Russia as a sponsor of terrorism—they will most likely pass this legislation. Unquestionably, all the sanctions they can impose against us are already in place. That’s not the scary part. What’s going to hurt is that the families harmed by the country that is a sponsor of terrorism have the right to file claims in American courts. Masses of Ukrainian citizens will be able to file suits. Where will the resources come from to pay out these claims?”

Referring to $300 billion out of the $640 billion that Russia had in its gold and forex reserves, which have been frozen by Western sanctions, host Vladimir Solovyov opined: “They’re looking for the way to grab our $300 billion.” Sidorov agreed: “They’ll take that $300 billion pursuant to court orders.”

Russian experts openly cherish the idea of taking Ukraine’s vast mineral and energy resources, which they predict will boost Russia’s failing economy. In addition to stealing Ukraine’s riches, pro-Putin propagandists have been openly hoping to get their seized funds and properties back—even threatening nuclear strikes in order to secure their release. The prospect of losing these billions for good is infinitely more worrisome than any label Putin’s regime so richly deserves.

Solovyov, twice honored by President Vladimir Putin for his services to the Fatherland, proposed a solution: forcefully turning all Ukrainians into Russian citizens after taking over Ukraine in its entirety. While Russia’s genocidal objectives with respect to the neighboring country were obvious from the start, Moscow’s mouthpieces are now attempting to blame the West for their destruction of Ukraine.

Speaking of Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression, Solovyov said: “These families should not have the opportunity to file lawsuits in a court of law. They should become Russian citizens and the nation of Ukraine should completely disappear.” Earlier in August, appearing on the state TV show 60 Minutes, military expert Igor Korotchenko conceded that Russia wants to erase Ukraine off the map, because “it never really existed in the first place,” is perceived to be “anti-Russia” and therefore has no right to exist.

Regardless of the final outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Moscow’s prospects as a global power are bleak. Appearing on the program Solovyov Live on Monday, Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Institute of the Middle East, noted with grim resignation, “With respect to the West as a whole, particularly where America, Europe or international organizations are concerned, Russia has nothing to hope for.”

Brazil’s presidential campaign launches amid fears of violence and upheaval

Andrew Downie
Tue, August 16, 2022 

Campaigning in Brazil’s most important election for years formally gets under way this week amid fears of political violence on the campaign trail and possible turmoil before and after the October ballots.

Far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is trailing in the polls and has hinted he will not give up power if defeated by the leftist frontrunner and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A woman holds a fan with the image of ‘Lula’ da Silva during a Black Women’s March in Rio de Janeiro, 31 July. Photograph: Bruna Prado/AP

A former army captain, Bolsonaro has sharpened his rhetoric in recent weeks, telling foreign diplomats that Brazil’s electronic voting system is not reliable and ordering army officers to monitor the source code used in more than half a million ballot boxes.

His supporters have attacked two Lula rallies in recent weeks, throwing faeces, urine and a crude explosive device at Lula backers, as well as shooting dead one prominent Workers’ party official in the western city of Foz de Iguaçu.

Politicians and poll watchers fear that political violence will only escalate ahead of the 2 October elections for president, congress and 27 state governors.

“There is real reason for concern because even though political violence has been a fact of life here for years the situation today has been exacerbated by the way Bolsonaro has promoted violent discourse as a way to resolve political conflicts,” said Pablo Nunes, head of the CESeC thinktank.

Related: Brazil: killing of Lula’s party treasurer raises fears of violent run-up to election

On the national stage, Lula’s security details have requested more manpower to deal with the threats and the 76-year-old now wears a bulletproof vest at public events. His campaign kicks off this week with rallies in São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.

Ironically, the most prominent victim of violence in recent years is Bolsonaro, who was stabbed at a campaign event in September 2018, just weeks before the election that brought him to power.

He spent three weeks in hospital and was forced to undergo surgeries as a result of the attack, carried out by a lone assailant with mental health problems.

The incident, though, did not temper his outlook.

Jair Bolsonaro during a March for Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. 

Photograph: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images

The former army captain was already notorious for his love of weapons and his close links to the military, where he served for 15 years. One of his trademark moves is to make a gun with his thumb and index finger and he once joked he would like to “strafe” members of the Workers’ party.

It was only weeks after taking power that his justice minister sought to reduce punishment for law enforcement officials who killed suspects while acting with “excusable fear, surprise or violent emotion”.

The wording was removed from the eventual bill but under Bolsonaro’s watch congress has passed 20 different measures making it easier to buy weapons. In the first two years of his government alone the number of gun licenses issued in Brazil rose by 65% to more than 1m, according to the NGO Instituto Sou da Paz.

Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper, has also spent much of the last year undermining the electoral system, repeating baseless claims about the reliability of Brazil’s electronic ballot boxes and insulting the judges who preside over the supreme electoral court, which organises the election and sanctions results.

He has hinted at the possibility of closing congress and in May told evangelical voters that “Only God can remove me” – a comment that prompted fears of a Trump-like insurrection if the vote goes against him.

“There is good reason to fear a possible Brazilian January 6 kind of situation,” said Nunes. “The conditions are there for this to happen.”

Although Bolsonaro has the backing of many in the military, it is unclear whether the top brass would support any attempt to subvert the democratic process.

Bolsonaro, though, is obviously preparing his supporters for action. Last week he told agricultural leaders, “Buy your guns! It’s in the Bible!”

“He is doing it to focus attention away from the country’s real problems and frighten the opposition, as well as to keep his militant base charged,” said Felipe Borba, the coordinator of a political violence thinktank at Rio’s Unirio university.

“It’s also done to prepare his side for a violent reaction if they lose.”

Borba said Bolsonaro wants to accumulate chips for the high-stakes poker game that will come after the election, which will go to a runoff on 30 October if no candidate gets a majority on 2 October.

A congressional inquiry into his disastrous handling of the pandemic – 680,000 Brazilians perished from the Covid-19 virus, more than any other country outside the United States – accused the president of nine offences, including crimes against humanity. He also faces charges related to his spread of fake news.

If he loses, he could face jail time and those close to the president said he is terrified at the prospect. Borba believes the sabre-rattling is a tactic aimed “at gaining power in any possible amnesty negotiation for him and his family. He needs to show strength.”

Related: Brazilians fear return to dictatorship as ‘deranged’ Bolsonaro trails in polls

Bolsonaro continues to trail in the polls with one study this week giving Lula a 12-point lead, although the gap has narrowed slightly in recent weeks.

Lula remains the favourite but Bolsonaro has the government machine at his disposal and has already increased the amount of monthly aid handouts given to 18 million of Brazil’s poorest families.

Whether that will be enough to close the gap remains to be seen but political analysts said the incumbent can win only by taking votes directly from Lula.

“If he keeps growing by consolidating votes from those who in theory should be voting for him, the kind of people who hate Lula more than anything and who were maybe not entirely happy with his government, then that won’t change the game,” said Vítor Oliveira, a political scientist with the Pulso Público consultancy.

“He needs to take votes from Lula to win; there is no other way.”

Strike four: Facebook misses election misinfo in Brazil ads
By BARBARA ORTUTAY

yesterday

An iPhone displays the Facebook app in New Orleans, Aug. 11, 2019. Facebook failed to detect election-related misinformation in ads ahead of Brazil's 2022 election, a new report from Global Witness has found, continuing a pattern of not catching material that violates its policies the group says is “alarming.” (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)


Facebook failed to detect blatant election-related misinformation in ads ahead of Brazil’s 2022 election, a new report from Global Witness has found, continuing a pattern of not catching material that violates its policies the group describes as “alarming.”

The advertisements contained false information about the country’s upcoming election, such as promoting the wrong election date, incorrect voting methods and questioning the integrity of the election — including Brazil’s electronic voting system.

This is the fourth time that the London-based nonprofit has tested Meta’s ability to catch blatant violations of the rules of its most popular social media platform— and the fourth such test Facebook has flubbed. In the three prior instances, Global Witness submitted advertisements containing violent hate speech to see if Facebook’s controls — either human reviewers or artificial intelligence — would catch them. They did not.

“Facebook has identified Brazil as one of its priority countries where it’s investing special resources specifically to tackle election related disinformation,” said Jon Lloyd, senior advisor at Global Witness. “So we wanted to really test out their systems with enough time for them to act. And with the U.S. midterms around the corner, Meta simply has to get this right — and right now.”

Brazil’s national elections will be held on Oct. 2 amid high tensions and disinformation threatening to discredit the electoral process. Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the country. In a statement, Meta said it has “ prepared extensively for the 2022 election in Brazil.”

“We’ve launched tools that promote reliable information and label election-related posts, established a direct channel for the Superior Electoral Court (Brazil’s electoral authority) to send us potentially-harmful content for review, and continue closely collaborating with Brazilian authorities and researchers,” the company said.

In 2020 Facebook began requiring advertisers who wish to run ads about elections or politics to complete an authorization process and include “paid for by” disclaimers on them, similar to what it does in the U.S. The increased safeguards follow the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, when Russia used rubles to pay for political ads designed to stoke divisions and unrest among Americans.

Global Witness said it broke these rules when it submitted the test ads (which were approved for publication but were never actually published). The group placed the ads from outside Brazil, from Nairobi and London, which should have raised red flags.

It was also not required to put a “paid for by” disclaimer on the ads and did not use a Brazilian payment method — all safeguards Facebook says it had put in place to prevent misuse of its platform by malicious actors trying to intervene in elections around the world.

“What’s quite clear from the results of this investigation and others is that their content moderation capabilities and the integrity systems that they deploy in order to mitigate some of the risk during election periods, it’s just not working,” Lloyd said.

The group is using ads as a test and not regular posts because Meta claims to hold advertisements to an “even stricter” standard than regular, unpaid posts, according to its help center page for paid advertisements.

But judging from the four investigations, Lloyd said that’s not actually clear.

“We we are constantly having to take Facebook at their word. And without a verified independent third party audit, we just can’t hold Meta or any other tech company accountable for what they say they’re doing,” he said.

Global Witness submitted ten ads to Meta that obviously violated its policies around election-related advertising. They included false information about when and where to vote, for instance and called into question the integrity of Brazil’s voting machines — echoing disinformation used by malicious actors to destabilize democracies around the world.

In another study carried out by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, researchers identified more than two dozen ads on Facebook and Instagram, for the month of July, that promoted misleading information or attacked the country’s electronic voting machines.

The university’s internet and social media department, NetLab, which also participated in the Global Witness study, found that many of those had been financed by candidates running for a seat at a federal or state legislature.

This will be Brazil’s first election since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking reelection, came to power. Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked the integrity of the country’s electronic voting system.

“Disinformation featured heavily in its 2018 election, and this year’s election is already marred by reports of widespread disinformation, spread from the very top: Bolsonaro is already seeding doubt about the legitimacy of the election result, leading to fears of a United States-inspired January 6 ‘stop the steal’ style coup attempt,” Global Witness said.

In its previous investigations, the group found that Facebook did not catch hate speech in Myanmar, where ads used a slur to refer to people of East Indian or Muslim origin and call for their deaths; in Ethiopia, where the ads used dehumanizing hate speech to call for the murder of people belonging to each of Ethiopia’s three main ethnic groups; and in Kenya, where the ads spoke of beheadings, rape and bloodshed.
__

Associated Press Writer Diane Jeantet contributed to this story.

Case against Alex Jones can proceed, Connecticut judge says


 Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones rallies pro-Trump supporters, Nov. 5, 2020, in Phoenix. A federal bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for a defamation lawsuit, filed by relatives of some victims of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, to proceed against Jones. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday cleared the way for a defamation lawsuit in Connecticut to proceed against Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The case was filed by relatives of some victims of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Jones has falsely claimed that the nation’s deadliest school shooting — which killed 20 students and six educators — was a hoax.

Jones’ lawyer had sought to transfer the case to a federal bankruptcy court, rather than continue the case in Connecticut state court. That move brought the first day of jury selection to a sudden halt earlier this month.

However, Monday’s ruling by Judge Julie Manning essentially allows the plaintiffs to continue the defamation lawsuit against just Jones as an individual, without Free Speech Systems, a company owned by Jones and a defendant in the Connecticut case.

“The plaintiffs’ rights to have that process continue in the Connecticut Superior Court should not be disturbed,” Manning wrote in the decision, adding that the plaintiffs’ claims for damages were ready for trial.

A message was left seeking comment with Jones’ attorney, Norm Pattis.

Chris Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs, praised the bankruptcy judge’s decision. “We’re grateful the bankruptcy court saw through Alex Jones’s brazen effort to block a jury from being empaneled and holding him accountable. We look forward to trial,” he said in a written statement.

Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in Texas about a week before Jones’ lawyer sought to have the Connecticut case transferred.

A Texas jury this month ordered Jones to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of one of the children killed at Sandy Hook, in addition to another $4.1 million he must pay for the suffering he put them through by claiming for years that the shooting was a hoax.

Jones’ attorneys plan to appeal and try to lower the amount. Meanwhile, besides the case in Connecticut, a trial for damages is pending in Texas that was filed by the parents of another child killed at Sandy Hook.

Before the trial in Texas, Jones had already been found liable in a separate defamation lawsuit in Texas and another in Connecticut by relatives of some of the Sandy Hook victims.

The Connecticut jury will decide what, if any, damages Jones owes in that case, although state law could also limit what he would have to pay.

The two remaining trials are expected to begin next month, after juries are selected. Jury selection in the Connecticut case could resume this week, lawyers said.

___ This story has been corrected to show that only Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy, not Alex Jones as an individual.

BUYING VOTE$ WITH FED FUND$
Kemp will hand out up to $1.2B in cash to poorer Georgians

By JEFF AMY

ATLANTA (AP) — Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday he will spend up to $1.2 billion in federal COVID-19 aid on payments of $350 apiece to more than 3 million Georgians who benefit from Medicaid, subsidized child health insurance, food stamps or cash welfare assistance.

The payments will start in September, said Katie Byrd, a spokesperson for the governor’s office.

The move comes atop Kemp’s proposals last week to spend $2 billion in state surplus, split between property tax rebates and a second round of income tax rebates, if voters choose him for a second term in November over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. Those separate plans would require legislative approval next year.

Monday’s announcement will put money in the hands of less affluent Georgians in the months before the nationally watched election in a narrowly contested swing state. Those are voters to whom Abrams has been tailoring her economic platform. She also backs another round of income tax rebates, like those Kemp already pushed though, but has been arguing that Georgia also needs to do more to invest in long-term expansions of health, education and small business assistance to try to create a less unequal economy.

Kemp, though, appears to be betting that handing out cash now will outweigh the promise of future improvements. Under Georgia state law, he alone controls how billions in federal COVID-19 relief is spent, meaning he can hand out money even as he bashes Democratic President Joe Biden and Abrams for inflation and high spending.

The governor again said that his reason for handing out cash was to help people pressured by higher prices, even though economists agree that such spending worsens inflation by dumping more cash into the economy to bid up the prices of goods and services.

“This assistance will help some of Georgia’s most vulnerable citizens cope with the continued negative economic impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency and 40-year-high inflation caused by disastrous policies that were implemented by the Biden administration,” Kemp’s office said in a statement.

Kemp has cited the same reason for repeated suspensions of the state’s gas and diesel taxes since March, a move that has cost the state more than $800 million in foregone tax revenue. Abrams has called on Kemp to guarantee a suspension of fuel taxes through the end of the year.

Abrams has repeatedly accused Kemp of hypocrisy for taking credit for federally financed benefits while bad-mouthing Biden. Abrams spokesperson Alex Floyd in a Monday statement called the move another of Kemp’s “election-year vote buying schemes.”

While Kemp is boosting the income of poorer Georgians now, he terminated a monthly boost of at least $95 in food stamp benefits at the end of May when he ended Georgia’s COVID-19 state of emergency. His administration has also lagged in distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money meant to prevent evictions.

“The reality is Brian Kemp refuses to expand Medicaid, has cut food assistance amid rising prices and failed to fully deploy federal rental assistance, leaving too many Georgians evicted,” said Abrams spokesperson Alex Floyd said in a statement. “Now, in the middle of a reelection campaign, he’s taking money to stage more political gimmicks. Kemp’s PR stunt is too little, too late.”

The state Department of Human Services said on its website that beneficiaries will get the payment automatically, but urged people to update their contact information on a state website that manages health and welfare benefits. The state said that people who get food stamps and cash welfare benefits will not get the money on the same debit card they get those benefits, but didn’t immediately respond to questions about how the money will get sent out.

Only people enrolled as of July 31 will get the money. Anyone who enrolled later or who left programs earlier is not eligible. If someone benefits from multiple programs, they will only get one $350 payment, but separate payments will be given to everyone in a household that benefits, meaning a single parent with two children would get $1,050, for example.

Georgia had 2.3 million people benefiting from Medicaid or the Child Health Insurance Program in April, according to the most recent federal figures, while it had 1.59 million people benefitting from food stamps in May.

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Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.

Why the Eastern Kentucky flood was no natural disaster. Let's call it what it is



Charles Calhoun
Tue, August 16, 2022 

It’s been two weeks since the historic and deadly flooding event in central Appalachia left 39 people dead and countless homes, businesses and lives destroyed. Naturally, narratives around this disaster have run amuck with some going so far as to name the very people dealing with it as the harbingers of their own destruction. And while this contributor will address that narrative below, there is another narrative that needs clarifying: The flood of July 28, 2022 was not a natural disaster.To imply this flood, along with so many other weather-borne catastrophes plaguing our world, is a natural disaster is to say three things: We don’t know why it happened, we don’t know how it happened and we don’t know how to prevent the next one. But we do know the answers to these questions. We’ve known them for some time. A combination of unfettered capitalism, environmental degradation through extraction economies and government indifference or plain inaction have borne a land in these hills ripe for weather related disasters and left behind communities with little to no defenses against them.

More: These are the people we lost in the Eastern Kentucky flooding

This disaster was man made. Strip mining and mountaintop removal reengineered the land and left communities and towns towards the valley floor exposed to record levels of storm runoff. Then the coal companies left and government officials let them offload their bonds tied to abandoned strip mining operations and their promise to clean up their mess. Logging companies also helped, clear cutting hillsides of trees capable of absorbing large amounts of moisture and holding the ground in place and leaving behind fields of kudzu, an invasive plant ill-suited for the job of mountain integrity. Throw in increased greenhouse gas emissions from the global industrialization of the 20th century and you have all the ingredients needed for continued and more frequent catastrophes.

Not the community's fault

This disaster is not the fault of those experiencing it. I consider myself an acquaintance of liberals and progressives and strive to abide no hate in the communities I live and work in. But to see folks of the same bent implying the assumed votes of the affected region in 2016 and 2020 and earlier are the reason why this man-made disaster has left them devastated is childish, infuriating and embarrassing.

To these same critical thinkers, I would ask: Will you say the same when the next disaster affects your democratic bulwark (i.e. Chicago, LA, Austin)? Did we not decry Sodom and Gomorrah references from conservatives after Hurricane Katrina? This is dangerously dualistic, incredibly callous and easily exploitable. We can’t be voices addressing climate change and in the same breath fall prey to such unscientific claims.

The science is clear

Finally, the next disaster is coming. The science is clear on this. The warmer our world becomes due to greenhouse gas buildup and environmental degradation, the more moisture will be absorbed into storms and the more volatile they will be, bringing prolonged rains and stronger winds. But when our government let the capitalists destroy these lands for profit and then let them off the hook for repairing them before they left, all while refusing any considerable legislation on addressing climate change, they left these communities vulnerable.

Without serious investments into repairing the land, rebuilding and refortifying infrastructure and providing those affected with free sturdy homes to replace the ones they lost, these man-made disasters will compound one after the other and the most vulnerable amongst us will suffer the consequences.

Charles Calhoun is a member of the Appalachian diaspora living in Columbia, SC but working remotely for an NPO in SEKY. He was present on the day of the floods.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: The Eastern Kentucky flood is no natural disaster. Call it what it is