ECOCIDE

Sweden sends special diving vessel to area of pipeline leaks





In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, the gas leak in the Baltic Sea from Nord Stream photographed from the Coast Guard's aircraft on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2022. A fourth leak on the Nord Stream pipelines has been reported off southern Sweden. Earlier, three leaks had been reported on the two underwater pipelines running from Russia to Germany. 

(Swedish Coast Guard via AP)More

Mon, October 3, 2022 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden has sent a vessel capable of “advanced diving missions” to the Baltic Sea area where ruptured undersea pipelines leaked natural gas for days, the Swedish navy said Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging Russia-built natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a charge vehemently denied by the United States and its allies.

Last week, undersea blasts damaged the pipelines off southern Sweden and Denmark and have led to huge methane leaks, with the Danish and Swedish governments saying that several hundred pounds of explosives was involved. The leaks occurred in international waters.

Capt. Jimmie Adamsson, a spokesman for the Swedish navy, told The Associated Press the vessel — a submarine rescue ship — had been sent to at the position of the leaks off Sweden and was supporting the Swedish coast guard, which is in charge of the work.


It was unclear when anyone would be able to go down, either divers or a submarine.

The coast guard said that it was on site with one of its vessels too, Amfritrite, to monitor sea traffic in the area. It added that bad weather is expected, which will complicate the conditions on site.

Over the weekend, authorities in Denmark said that Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines had stopped leaking.

Sweden's prosecuting authority and the Swedish Security Services are heading an investigation, while Copenhagen police were in charge of an inquiry in Denmark.

Denmark said the investigation was being carried out in close cooperation with relevant authorities, including the National Police, the Danish Police Intelligence Service and Denmark's energy authorities.

A joint international investigation team consisting of relevant authorities from, among others, Denmark, Germany and Sweden, should also be set up.

The U.S.-Russia clashes continued later at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York called by Moscow on the pipelines attacks and as Norwegian researchers published a map projecting that a huge plume of methane from the damaged pipelines will travel over large swaths of the Nordic region.

Sweden sends diving vessel to probe leaking Nord Stream pipelines


Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm

Mon, October 3, 2022 
By Johan Ahlander and Terje Solsvik

STOCKHOLM/OSLO (Reuters) - Sweden sent a diving vessel on Monday to the site of Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that ruptured last week following blasts in the area, to probe an incident that has added new tension to Europe's energy crisis.

Europe is investigating what caused three pipelines in the Nord Stream network to burst in an act of suspected sabotage near Swedish and Danish waters that Moscow quickly sought to pin on the West, suggesting the United States stood to gain.

Nord Stream, which runs from Russia to Germany, has been at the centre of a growing gas supply crisis in Europe, which until recently relied heavily on Russian fuel, sending prices soaring.

Several European Union states have triggered emergency plans that may lead to rationing as they race to find alternative supplies, while Britain now faces a "significant risk" of gas shortages this winter, the regulator said.

"The coast guard is responsible for the mission, but we are supporting them with units," a spokesperson for the Swedish navy, Jimmie Adamsson, told Reuters. "The only one we are naming is HMS Belos, which is a submarine rescue and diving vessel."

The Swedish coast guard said Nord Stream 1 had stopped leaking, but an overflight suggested gas was still draining out of Nord Stream 2 and bubbling to the surface over a 30 metre (32 yard) radius.

The Kremlin doubled down on allegations that the West was to blame for the ruptures on Monday, saying that the United States was able to increase sales and prices of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a result.

Washington has strongly denied any involvement. European countries suspect sabotage, but have declined to say who could be behind it.

Kremlin-controlled Gazprom also said flows could resume at the last remaining intact pipeline in the Nord Stream 2 network, a suggestion likely to be rebuffed given Europe blocked Nord Stream 2 on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

"If a decision is made to start deliveries through Nord Stream 2's line B, natural gas will be pumped into the pipeline after the integrity of the system has been checked and verified by supervisory authorities," Gazprom said.

The suggestion follows remarks by Russia's deputy prime minister on Sunday that the Nord Stream network could be repaired, given time and enough funds.

NORWAY SENDS SOLDIERS

Nord Stream has been a flashpoint in the energy standoff between the West and Moscow that has pummelled Western economies and fuelled a cost-of-living crisis.

Russia steadily reduced gas flows via Nord Stream 1 this year before halting them altogether at the end of August, blaming technical difficulties caused by Western sanctions. European countries said Moscow was using energy as a weapon.

Nord Stream 2 was never operational, and Western countries have resisted calls from Russia to drop their opposition to the project.

Jolted by the Nord Stream ruptures, European countries have started strengthening security and surveillance around critical infrastructure that could be vulnerable to attack.

Norway, Europe's main gas supplier and a major oil exporter, said it had deployed soldiers to guard major onshore oil and gas processing plants.

Italy has strengthened surveillance and controls on underwater energy and telecommunications cables, a source told Reuters.

Focus has also turned to the security of other gas supply lines. Eni, the biggest importer of Russian gas in Italy, at the weekend said Russia had halted all gas flows through the Tarvisio entry point, though its chief executive on Monday blamed the halt on short-term technical issues.

The stoppage of flows through the Tarvisio entry point "has absolutely nothing to do with geopolitical factors. It is due to the fact that Gazprom would have to pay a monetary guarantee for the transport of gas from Austria to Italy that was not there before," Claudio Descalzi said.

European Union countries meanwhile are trying to forge a consensus on a gas price cap, which is opposed by some countries including economic powerhouse Germany.

EU country leaders are set to ask the European Commission to propose a cap using "workable solutions", according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

Hungary, which has been at loggerheads with Brussels and criticised Western sanctions on Russia, on Monday secured a deferral on payments for its winter gas supply.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Jan Harvey)

BIG LIE TO JUSTIFY KILLING DEMOCRATS
Marjorie Taylor Greene deceptively tells Trump rally that Democrat 'killings' of Republicans have already started

Joshua Zitser
Sun, October 2, 2022 

Majorie Taylor Greene waves to the crowd before she makes speaks during a Save America rally on October 1, 2022 in Warren, MichiganEmily Elconin/Getty Images

Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at a rally for Donald Trump in Michigan on Saturday night.

A video shows her accusing Democrats of murdering Republicans, saying the "killings" have already begun.

She referenced two local stories, neither of which appear to back the claim that Republicans are being hunted down.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene deceptively claimed at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday that Democrats are murdering Republicans.

"I'm not going to mince words with you all," Greene said. "Democrats want Republicans dead. They've already started the killings."

Greene, who has repeatedly spread bizarre conspiracy theories, went on to reference two local news stories to support her baseless claim that Democrats are hunting down GOP voters.

"An 18-year-old was run down by a Democrat driver who confessed to killing the teenager simply because he was a Republican," said Greene. The claim was met with boos from the crowd.

Greene appears to be referring to an incident in North Dakota in which a man fatally struck a teenager with his SUV. The 41-year-old suspect, who fled the fatal crash scene, told police that he believed the 18-year-old victim was "part of a Republican extremist group" and had been "threatening him," per Dailymail.com.

However, North Dakota Highway Patrol Captain Bryan Niewind told Fox News that his department's investigations have "uncovered no evidence to support the claim" that the murder had anything to do with politics or that the victim was a Republican.

Greene also referenced an 83-year-old woman in Michigan who was "shot in the back for advocating for the unborn."

It refers to another local story in which a Michigan man reportedly shot an elderly pro-life volunteer who he said refused to leave his property. The unnamed canvasser got into a "screaming" match with the man's wife over abortion, per Fox News. The Michigan man, speaking to News 8, said he shot the 83-year-old by "accident" after accusing her several times of trespassing.

It is not known whether the Michigan man is a Democrat. The elderly woman survived. Michigan State Police is investigating the incident.

Greene continued her speech by making additional incendiary remarks. "Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state," she said.

It was Trump who used this specific terminology, referring to President Joe Biden as an "enemy of the state" during a rally in Pennsylvania last month.

"We will take back our country from the communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear," she continued. "We will expose the unelected bureaucrats, the real enemies within, who have abused their power and have declared political warfare on the greatest president this country has ever had."

Insider contacted Greene for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Henry Idema: Religion and the control of women


Henry Idema
Sat, October 1, 2022

A woman friend of mine, a Republican (or used to be), said to me recently, when I asked her about her stand on abortion, "Men have controlled me my whole life! Women should have total control over their own bodies."

I agreed with her, and one of the main ways men have controlled women is through religion. Men since the days of Adam and Eve have feared women, especially because of their sexuality. So men created religion in part — in large part — to control women. Women have been seen within religions as tempters, as in the story of Adam and Eve.

We don't know why Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes, but most likely it had to do with sex. In the classic 1944 movie about Jack the Ripper, "The Lodger," the murders are committed because a man, played by Laird Creger, loathes and lusts for women's sexuality. Because Jack the Ripper in the movie cannot control women, or appeal to them sexually, he slaughters them.

If you read the Bible from Genesis to the Revelation of John, you see a long history of women being controlled by men. Just one example. Women caught in adultery, were stoned. Men caught in adultery were not. Kings like David and Solomon had multiple sexual partners and had the freedom to have sex outside of marriage, with no consequences from other men, many of whom were doing the same thing.

If you read an account of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, again you see male judges fearing women, and when these judges could not control the women in their little village, they hung them if they believed they were in fact witches and handmaid's of Satan.

Speaking of handmaids, see the 1990 movie, "The Handmaid's Tale," about a future world where young, healthy white women are brainwashed to become bearers of children for a new "pure" generation. Hitler in fact did this with SS men who forced young blonde women to bear their children in camps set aside for this purpose. Many Germans today are the descendants of these forced rapes and forced births.

This world of forced births has now arrived in America, at least in certain states. The religious right has dreamed for fifty years of overturning Roe, and then imposing prohibitions on abortion, even in many states with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. We are now living in an age of forced births. These new abortion restrictions have been or are now being enacted by mostly men in various state legislatures. The religious right supported a twice divorced and serial adulterer for president in the hope that he would appoint conservative judges, especially on the Supreme Court, who would overturn Roe. That gamble obviously paid off. But now the wrath of women against being controlled by men and their religion, has been unleashed, and who knows what the consequences will be for our religious and political institutions.

I am amazed that women support with their money and attendance places of worship which try to control them. The Roman Catholic Church will not even let women be priests, and tells their the women in their pews not to use artificial birth control. In many evangelical churches women are taught to obey their husbands. No wonder organized religion is declining in America!

Sen. Lindsey Graham, an unmarried man, now wants to have a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks, with some exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother. Here is another example of a man who wants to control all the women in the United States. We will see if his desire gets any traction in Congress.

I agree with my Republican friend, men do want to control women, and men are and have been using religion to control a woman' s body for centuries. In my view the government should have nothing to do with medical decisions women make. When abortions happen late in the development of the fetus, it is usually for medical reasons. Most if not all women who carry a baby into the seventh month and beyond, want that baby. But medical issues in the development of the baby sometimes show up only late, after 15 weeks. Let's keep the government, controlled by men, out of these very private and deeply emotional decisions that women make.

Right now in Iran the government is trying to force women to wear hair coverings out in public, and thousands of women are protesting. The government in Afghanistan is using religion to force women to remain uneducated, thus preventing training for careers. In Russia the Orthodox Church, which does not have women priests, supports Putin in his war against the women, and men, of Ukraine. All over the world men are using religion to control women.

In our own country, men are increasingly using religion to control people, especially women. If your religious institution is part of this effort to control women, try to reform it or leave it. If your elected leaders or political candidates are part of this effort to control women, vote them out of office and certainty do not elect the candidates who want to control a woman's body, using religion as their justification.

— Henry Idema lives in Grand Haven. He can be reached at henryidema3@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Henry Idema: Religion and the control of women

Woman at Trump rally 'apologizes to  humanity for voting for the Antichrist Obama'

Raw Story - Yesterday
By David Edwards

Real America's Voice/screen grab© provided by RawStory

A woman at a Trump rally told a conservative broadcasting network that she wanted to apologize to "humanity" after voting for former President Barack Obama.

Real America's Voice correspondent Ben Bergquam spoke to the woman, who identified herself as Jeanie, prior to a rally with former President Donald Trump in Michigan on Saturday.

"Tell me what you said when you walked up to me," Bergquam prompted.

"I wanted to apologize to humanity for voting for the Antichrist Obama," the woman stated. "I deeply apologize. I used to be a Democrat. I was blue all my life. I was also pro-choice and I was an atheist until Jan. 21, 2021."

The Trump supporter said that she had a "sudden awakening" when Joe Biden was sworn in as president.

"So I went from blue to red to MAGA!" she revealed. "And I'm here! And I absolutely love it!"

"We all make mistakes in our life," Bergquam replied. "And that's where God's grace comes in."

Watch the video clip below from Real America's Voice or at the link:

Archaeologists Unearth Hercules Statue From Ancient Philippi

Tobias Carroll - Yesterday 

Located in northeastern Greece, the village of Filippoi is home to just over 11,000 people. It’s a modest municipality with a storied history — it shares its location with the ancient city of Philippi, which was renamed by one Philip II of Macedon. (You may know Philip II better as Alexander the Great’s dad.) And, as with many locations that have drawn inhabitants for centuries, Filippoi has plenty of artifacts lurking just underground.


Philippi© Marsyas, CC BY-SA 3.0

As ARTnews recently reported, a group of researchers near Filippoi recently recovered a statue of Hercules that dates back to the era of Philippi. According to the article, the statue was made in the 2nd century C.E., and was placed on the side of a building several centuries later.

Natalia Poulos, a professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, was in charge of the dig, which involved a number of students of varying levels — from undergraduates to PhD candidates — as well as several other members of Aristotle University faculty.

Though Philippi itself is no longer a functioning city, the site where it once stood remains of vital interest. In 2016, it was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hailing its origins, its transformation when it became part of the Roman Empire and its important role in the early spread of Christianity. The discovery of this statue offers further evidence of this site’s continuing relevance for the study of ancient history.

Rising Ozone Levels a 'Silent Threat' to Pollination: Scientists

Mark Waghorn, Zenger News -


Air pollution is preventing insects from sniffing out the crops and wildflowers that depend on them, according to research. The review in Trends in Ecology and Evolution also found that ozone pollutes plants almost instantly—leaving injury signs of diverse hues and shapes and discoloring leaves.


A bee collects nectar from a sunflower on the Dorset Sunflower Trail, on August 13, 2022 in Dorchester, England. Air pollution is preventing insects from sniffing out the crops and wildflowers that depend on them, according to research.

© Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Bees and butterflies pollinate plants, going from flower to flower—boosting reproduction. This process has been interrupted by rising levels of ozone, impacting the survival of both fauna and flora.

The review's lead author, Professor Evgenios Agathokleous of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in China, said: "There is much noise about the direct effects of agrochemicals on pollinators, a subject of profound societal attention. But it now emerges that ozone is a silent threat to pollinators and thus pollination. These impacts of ozone have long been missed."

U.S. Coal Production To Increase Slightly After Two Decades Of Decline

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Ozone forms naturally in the stratosphere 7.5 miles above sea level and helps protect against harmful sun rays. But in the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere, it damages Earth. A photochemical reaction between volatile chemicals creates the greenhouse gas.

Levels have been increasing because a warming climate is creating optimal conditions for it to thrive.

Agathokleous said: "Ozone pollution can affect the timing and duration of flowering in such a way the occurrence of flowering is asynchronous to the activities of pollinators.

"It can also change the color of flowers, disrupting the visual signals to pollinators. Ozone pollution can also directly react with pollen, decreasing its quality, but also indirectly changing the amount of pollen."

When damaged, plants have a hard time photosynthesizing and struggle to provide the energy needed for growth.

Plants emit their own organic volatile compounds to facilitate communication between them and to alert pollinators to the presence of a waiting flower.

Ozone pollution appears to be disrupting these chemical signatures.

Agathokleous added: "Changes in the composition of the volatile blends could also have severe implications to pollinators because they might not recognize host plants and their qualities in the same way they did in the past.

"Within plant tissues, ozone pollution could decrease the number of nutrients that are essential to insects, increase the abundance of chemicals that are harmful to insects ingesting them, and degrade the overall quality of plant tissues."

A recent scientific review of insect numbers around the world suggested that 40 percent of species were undergoing "dramatic rates of decline."

Bees, ants, and beetles are disappearing eight times faster than mammals, birds, or reptiles.

According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution accounts for an estimated 4.2 million deaths a year from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases.

Produced in association with SWNS Talker.

CITY CENTRE STILL CHEAP
Edmonton faces a shortage of homes in lower prices bands

Joel Schlesinger, for the Edmonton Journal - Friday

A recent report finding Canada’s real estate market faces persistent supply issues that could lead to a housing crisis hits close to home even though Edmonton was not among cities surveyed, a local realtor says.


Edmonton's supply of homes remains in a better position than many other Canadian cities.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Real estate agent Nathan Mol with Liv Real Estate says Edmonton’s market is largely seeing a balance between demand and supply after several months of the market favouring sellers.

Still, supply remains in short supply where it often matters most.

“The challenge is inventory in the more affordable price bands (for single-family homes) is down significantly,” he adds.

The recent Re/Max Canada 2022 Housing Inventory Report reveals a similar trend in other cities.

Tracking active listings in Calgary, Greater Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Greater Toronto, among others, the study found levels in July were below the 10-year average in seven of eight major centres examined.

In Calgary, the July market featured 7,069 active listings, about 26 per cent below average, the study found.

“Listings have fallen considerably there,” says Elton Ash, executive vice-president of Re/Max Canada.

Meanwhile, the population over the past 15 years has grown by 37 per cent, he says, further noting similar trends are at play in Edmonton.

Mol says the local market is short on supply for affordably priced, single-family detached homes — which are most in demand — compared with the pre-pandemic market.

In September 2019, for example, 1,390 single-family detached homes were for sale, which had at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and were priced under $400,000. For homes priced between $400,000 and $500,000, 1,200 homes were for sale.

This September, supply among single-family homes under $400,000 is 50 per cent lower than 2019 levels and 30 per cent lower for homes in the $400,000 to $500,000-range, Mol notes.

Despite rising borrowing costs, Edmonton and other major markets have not seen expected increases in inventory compared with similar periods in the past, Ash notes.

“If we look at the market cycles over the last 40-plus years, whenever we’ve seen higher rates, buyer demand dropped off dramatically while inventory increased,” he says.

“This time around, we’re still seeing low inventory even as buyer demand drops.”

The scenario is unlikely to turn around without faster new development, Ash says. In fact, he suggests Canada faces a looming housing crisis, given more than 1.3 million newcomers are expected to arrive by the end of 2023.

In Edmonton, however, the supply pinch is likely to be not as acute as other cities, Mol says.

Supply in the most in-demand segment, affordably priced single-family homes, is likely to remain low with millennials — the largest cohort of buyers — seeking to purchase in this segment for growing families, Mol says.

“The good news is that starts so far this year are up 12 per cent over last year for single-family detached homes … whereas many other cities are seeing a sharp drop-off,” he says, referring to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data.

Mol points to Ottawa, a similar sized city, where single-family starts are down year over year, and about 40 per cent of Edmonton’s activity.

“Luckily for us, even though affordable housing supply is still a challenge, we are in a much better situation than most other cities.”

Maybe Hurricane Ian taught Florida’s DeSantis an American lesson: United is in the name
GOP REPLACED E PLURBIS UNUM WITH IN GOD WE TRUST


The Kansas City Star Editorial Board
Sat, October 1, 2022 

Hurricane Ian ripped through much of Florida last week and delivered more than wide swaths of devastation. It also sent a message to Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with the rest of the nation, that being part of this country comes with responsibility to your fellow citizens. When disaster strikes, the rest of the country, and its federal government, pitches in because that’s the best of America. United is in the name.

It was a lesson in which he apparently needed a reminder. Just two weeks ago, DeSantis showed no concern for the well being of others when he used vulnerable human beings as pawns in a widely criticized stunt in which he dumped two plane loads of mostly Venezuelan asylum-seekers in Massachusetts’s Martha’s Vineyard.

He’s not happy with the Biden administration’s border policies and wanted to give non-border states a taste of Florida’s immigration challenges.

But when Ian, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of up to 150 mph, prepared to slam into Florida last week, DeSantis wasted no time in asking Biden to declare every county in the Sunshine State a federal disaster site. And he welcomed the hundreds of FEMA trucks and rescue teams rolling south.

No doubt the aid was desperately needed. With the storm moving across Florida to the Atlantic, and then north toward the Carolinas, the casualty toll was expected to be high. Millions lost power, high water flooded streets and roared through towns downing trees, washing away vehicles and homes. Fierce winds flattened whole neighborhoods.

Because Americans always respond generously in these situations, DeSantis knew he could count on help from all over. From Missouri and Kansas to New York and Massachusetts, states across the country rushed to help in any way they could. President Biden immediately issued emergency declarations and ordered federal aid to Florida, including funds, equipment, food and labor.

Meeting adversity with action is what we do as Americans. It’s woven into our cultural fabric, even if it’s sometimes difficult to discern the frayed threads of decency of late amid so much uncivil discourse and behavior.

DeSantis was right to request aid, but then so too were his critics in New York and New Jersey, who noted that less than a decade ago when DeSantis was a newly elected Florida congressman, he voted against providing $9.7 billion in flood insurance aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy which left more than 200 people dead.

The difference between a helping hand, and a handout is whether you are willing to pull others up with you. The citizens of Florida are lucky then, that there are not too many like DeSantis elsewhere in the U.S., otherwise they might find the assistance they need now less than forthcoming.

Whether it be a storm or drought, tornado, pandemic, wildfire, or crumbling infrastructure, crises such as those caused by Hurricane Ian do not discriminate on the basis of political party. Nor can we, as Americans, afford to discriminate in the actions with which we meet those adversities.

Lives are at stake, as is our future and character as a nation.

A good leader understands that the glue that binds our 50 states together. We help our fellow citizens in crisis, not just because they need it but because we will likely need a helping hand someday too.

Let’s hope that message has been learned.

Hurricane Ian: Florida death toll rises as criticism mounts


Bernd Debusmann Jr and Sam Cabral - BBC News
Mon, October 3, 2022 

Rescue personnel in Florida's Lee County on 30 September

The death toll from Hurricane Ian has reportedly risen past 80 in Florida as rescue personnel continue to search for survivors and assess the damage.

Officials in Florida have come under fire as critics allege residents in some hard-hit areas did not receive enough advance warning to evacuate.

At least half of the deaths recorded so far are in Lee County, where Ian made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.

President Joe Biden is expected to visit Florida on Wednesday.

According to the BBC's US partner network CBS, the hurricane's death toll in Florida stood at at least 82 on Monday morning. Another four deaths have been confirmed in North Carolina.

The Florida District Medical Examiners Commission, however, has put the death toll at 58. The figures differ as while local officials may report additional storm-related deaths, the medical examiner's officer is only attributing a death to the hurricane after an autopsy is performed.

The bulk of the deaths - 42 - have been reported in Lee County, which includes the hard-hit areas Fort Myers, Sanibel and Pine Island. On Friday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis described the county as "ground zero" for the hurricane.

They stayed for the storm - what happens now?

Hurricane Ian drives black family from historic home

Confusion over death tolls is common in the wake of hurricanes. In 2020, for example, less than 20 deaths were reported from Hurricane Laura days after it made landfall in Louisiana - a figure which the National Hurricane Center later revised to 47.

While the death toll from Hurricane Ian already makes it one of the deadliest hurricanes in recent memory, it still pales in comparison to 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which killed over 1,800 people.

In the wake of the storm, officials in Lee County have faced questions about the timing of their evacuation order, which was issued on 27 September, less than 24 hours before Ian made landfall. Several other counties in the path of the incoming hurricane issued their own evacuation orders a day before,

Local officials, as well as Governor DeSantis, have defended Lee County's preparations for the hurricane.

"Everyone wants to focus on a plan that might have been done differently," Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said on Sunday. "I stand 100% with my county commissioners, my county manager. We did what we had to do at the exact same time. I wouldn't have changed anything."

A 2015 planning document on the official website of Lee County's government notes that "due to our large population and limited system, Southwest Florida is the hardest place in the country to evacuate in a disaster". The document adds that evacuation decision-making procedures consider "evacuation risks, the disruption to both the lives of our residents/visitors, businesses and the potential magnitude of the impending threat."

An aerial view of Fort Myers on 2 October

The death toll cited by Florida officials does not include at least 16 Cuban migrants who remain missing after their boat capsized off the state's coastline during the hurricane. Of the 27 people on board, nine were rescued by the US Coast Guard and two managed to swim ashore at Stock Island, near Key West, The bodies of two more who died have been recovered. The Coast Guard has suspended the search for those still missing.

Approximately 600,000 people remain without power across the state, according to data from poweroutage.us.

The utility company with the largest number of outages, Florida Power & Light Co, said that the majority of customers will have their power restored by 7 October, but that storm damage has made some properties "unable to safely accept power".

While officials are still assessing the damage caused by the hurricane across the state, experts have warned that the economic cost could ultimately rise to tens of billions of dollars. So far, insurers have reported at about $1.44bn (£1.28bn) in preliminary claims.

A preliminary forecast from data firm Enki Research published on 1 October estimated that total damages will amount to at least $66bn, but could rise as high as $75bn.

US President Joe Biden will visit Florida on Wednesday, October 5, two days after a visit to Puerto Rico, which itself was struck by Hurricane Fiona jus

Ruptured oil pipeline off California approved for repairs




Workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach at Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 11, 2021, following a pipeline rupture that spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil off the Southern California coast. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted the approval Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, to Amplify Energy Corp. to repair the pipeline. The Houston company pleaded guilty to federal charges last month of negligently discharging oil. 

(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)More

BRIAN MELLEY
Sat, October 1, 2022 at 7:07 PM·3 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Texas oil company was granted permission to repair an underwater pipeline that ruptured off the coast of Southern California a year ago, spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude, and forced beaches and fisheries to close.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted the approval Friday to Amplify Energy Corp., clearing the way to rebuild the aging pipeline that burst months after it was apparently weakened when it was snagged by the anchors of ships adrift in a storm.

The Oct. 1, 2021, rupture spilled about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of oil into the Pacific Ocean, closed miles of beaches for a week, shuttered fisheries for months and coated birds and wetlands in oil.

The approval to rebuild the pipe running from an oil rig off Huntington Beach to tanks in Long Beach comes less than a month after Amplify pleaded guilty to federal charges of negligently discharging oil. The Houston-based company and two subsidiaries also agreed to plead no contest in state court to polluting water and killing birds.

Amplify said the approval will allow it to remove and replace the damaged segments of pipe from the ocean floor.

It estimated the work would take up to a month after a barge is in place. If it passes a series of safety tests after being fixed, the company said it expected to begin operating in the first quarter of 2023.

Environmentalists who want the pipeline shut down criticized the permit approval and renewed calls to put an end to offshore oil operations.

“The Biden administration just ramped up the risk of yet another ugly oil spill on California’s beautiful coast,” said Brady Bradshaw of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Unfortunately, people living near offshore drilling infrastructure are all too familiar with this abusive cycle of drill, spill, repeat."

On Wednesday, the environmental group sued the federal government for allowing the platform where the pipeline originated to operate under outdated plans that indicated the platform should have been decommissioned more than a decade ago. The lawsuit also said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management failed to review and require plan revisions, despite the spill.

Amplify contended that the spill wouldn't have occurred if two ships hadn't dragged their anchors across the pipeline and damaged it during a January 2021 storm. It said it wasn’t notified about the anchor snagging until after the spill.

While the size of the spill was not as bad as initially feared, U.S. prosecutors said the company should have been able to turn off the damaged line much sooner had it recognized the gravity of a series of leak-detection alarms over a 13-hour period.

The first alarm sounded late on the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2021, but workers misinterpreted the cause, according to the federal plea agreement.

When the alarm sounded throughout the night, workers shut down the pipeline to investigate and then restarted it after deciding they were false alarms. That spewed more oil.

It wasn’t until after daybreak that a boat identified the spill and the line was shut down.

As part of a federal court agreement to pay a $7 million fine and nearly $6 million in expenses incurred by agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard, the company and subsidiaries agreed to install a new leak-detection system and train employees to identify and respond to potential leaks.

The company agreed to plead no contest to six state misdemeanor charges and pay $4.9 million in penalties and fines as part of a settlement.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the company agreed to plead no contest to state misdemeanor charges, instead of guilty.

KULT KONTROL
Trump staffers not returning White House records, National Archives says


 A detailed property inventory of items seized by the FBI from 

former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen after being

 released by a U.S. federal court in Florida


Sun, October 2, 2022
By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump's administration has not turned over all presidential records and the National Archives will consult with the Justice Department on whether to move to get them back, the agency has told Congress.

A congressional panel on Sept. 13 sought an urgent review by the National Archives and Records Administration after agency staff members acknowledged that they did not know if all presidential records from Trump's White House had been turned over.

"While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should," acting Archivist Debra Wall said in a letter Friday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.


The Archives knows some White House staffers conducted official business on personal electronic messaging accounts that were that were not copied or forwarded to their official accounts, in violation of the Presidential Records Act, Wall said.

"NARA has been able to obtain such records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of presidential records from former officials," Wall said in the letter, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

She said the Archives, the federal agency charged with preserving government records, would consult with the Department of Justice on "whether to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed."

The Oversight Committee's chairwoman, representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement she would do everything in her power to ensure the return of all records and prevent future abuses.

"Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires," Maloney, whose committee shared a copy of the letter with Reuters, said in a statement.

Representatives for Trump did not return a request for comment on the matter.

Trump is facing a criminal investigation by the Justice Department for retaining government records - some marked as highly classified, including "top secret" - at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021.

The FBI seized more than 11,000 records, including about 100 documents marked as classified, in a court-approved Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago.

The Justice Department and Trump's lawyers have been locked in a legal battle over how the records are handled. Government lawyers have been granted access to the classified documents but on Friday asked an appeals court to expedite its ability to access the non-classified documents seized in Florida.

Read more:

Trump was sued by New York's attorney general. What legal woes does he face?

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Daniel Wallis)