The 1997 chess game that thrust AI into the spotlight

AI has come a long way since Deep Blue's chess victory in 1997, with the technology used in everything from financial analysis to weather forecasting

 (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON)

Cedric SIMON, Laurent BARTHELEMY and Joseph BOYLE
Tue, May 10, 2022, 

With his hand pushed firmly into his cheek and his eyes fixed on the table, Garry Kasparov shot a final dark glance at the chessboard before storming out of the room: the king of chess had just been beaten by a computer.

May 11, 1997 was a watershed for the relationship between man and machine, when the artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer Deep Blue finally achieved what developers had been promising for decades.

It was an "incredible" moment, AI expert Philippe Rolet told AFP, even if the enduring technological impact was not so huge.

"Deep Blue's victory made people realise that machines could be as strong as humans, even on their territory," he said.

Developers at IBM, the US firm that made Deep Blue, were ecstatic with the victory but quickly refocused on the wider significance.

"This is not about man versus machine. This is really about how we, humans, use technology to solve difficult problems," said Deep Blue team chief Chung-Jen Tan after the match, listing possible benefits from financial analysis to weather forecasting.

Even Chung would have struggled to comprehend how central AI has now become -- finding applications in almost every field of human existence.

"AI has exploded over the last 10 years or so," UCLA computer science professor Richard Korf told AFP.

"We're now doing things that used to be impossible."

- 'One man cracked' -

After his defeat, Kasparov, who is still widely regarded as the greatest chess player of all time, was furious.

He hinted there had been unfair practices, denied he had really lost and concluded that nothing at all had been proved about the power of computers.

He explained that the match could be seen as "one man, the best player in the world, (who) has cracked under pressure".

The computer was beatable, he argued, because it had too many weak points.

Nowadays, the best computers will always beat even the strongest human chess players.

AI-powered machines have mastered every game going and now have much bigger worlds to conquer.

Korf cites notable advances in facial recognition that have helped make self-driving cars a reality.

Yann LeCun, head of AI research at Meta/Facebook, told AFP there had been "absolutely incredible progress" in recent years.

LeCun, one of the founding fathers of modern AI, lists among the achievements of today's computers an ability "to translate any language into any language in a set of 200 languages" or "to have a single neural network that understands 100 languages".

It is a far cry from 1997, when Facebook didn't even exist.

- Machines 'not the danger' -

Experts agree that the Kasparov match was important as a symbol but left little in the way of a technical legacy.

"There was nothing revolutionary in the design of Deep Blue," said Korf, describing it as an evolution of methods that had been around since the 1950s.

"It was also a piece of dedicated hardware designed just to play chess."

Facebook, Google and other tech firms have pushed AI in all sorts of other directions.

They have fuelled increasingly powerful AI machines with unimaginable amounts of data from their users, serving up remorselessly targeted content and advertising and forging trillion-dollar companies in the process.

AI technology now helps to decide anything from the temperature of a room to the price of vehicle insurance.

Devices from vacuum cleaners to doorbells come with arrays of sensors to furnish AI systems with data to better target consumers.

While critics bemoan a loss of privacy, enthusiasts believe AI products just make everyone's lives easier.

Despite his painful history with machines, Kasparov is largely unfazed by AI's increasingly dominant position.

"There is simply no evidence that machines are threatening us," he told AFP last year.

"The real danger comes not from killer robots but from people -- because people still have a monopoly on evil."

cds-lby/jxb/ach

ILLEGAL ZIONIST OCCUPATION
After Israel ruling, West Bank families fear evictions 'at any time'







Gareth BROWNE
Tue, May 10, 2022, 

The threat of losing his West Bank land has loomed over Ali Mohammed Jabbareen for more than two decades, but he now fears an Israeli court decision may finally force him to go.

Jabbareen, 60, lives in the Palestinian village of Jinba, part of the Masafer Yatta area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that has been at the centre of a protracted legal battle.

In the early 1980s, the army declared the 3,000 hectare (7,400 acre) area a restricted military area -- calling it "Firing Zone 918".

The army said it was uninhabited, and that anyone claiming to live there was doing so illegally.

The roughly 1,000 Palestinians who live there say Masafer Yatta was their people's home long before Israeli soldiers set foot in the West Bank.


Israel's top court ruled against the Palestinians last week, saying they had "failed to prove" their claim to permanent residence before its declaration as a military training zone.

The European Union condemned the decision on Tuesday, saying "the establishment of a firing zone cannot be considered an 'imperative military reason' to transfer the population under occupation".

The ruling made no specific mention of evictions, which are usually followed by demolitions such as one carried out Tuesday at Silwan in annexed east Jerusalem.

But Jabbareen fears they could be carried out with little notice.

"We have no information about the demolitions," he told AFP as he gazed through the open door of his one-room house at an Israeli military patrol stirring up dust on the unpaved road nearby.

Army units with clearance to destroy his home, "could come at any time", he said.

- 'No other place to go' -

Masafer Yatta residents insist they lived in the area even as control of the West Bank changed hands -- from the British mandate period through Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, the year the Israeli occupation began.

The isolated community is in the West Bank's "Area C" -- which is under full Israeli control -- and is more than an hour's drive from the nearest paved road.

Few of the homes are connected to a water supply system or power grid.

Jabbareen built his house into a rocky outcrop in the heart of his farmland. It is currently home to 12 people, who scratch out a living raising sheep and growing vegetables.

"This is my land and they want to expel me from it," he said.

Some residents of Masafer Yatta were first kicked out in 1999.

The following year, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) helped some of the families challenge their expulsion in court.

They secured a temporary reprieve that remained in force pending the high court's final decision last week.

Roni Pelli of the ACRI said the verdict was "inherently flawed".

"The villages in Masafar Yatta are the homes of the petitioners, and they have no other home."

She insisted expelling them was "illegal," and backed a long-standing allegation made by Israeli critics that the army uses the military zone designation as a pretext to grab West Bank land.

The Israeli human rights group Akevot, which specialises in state and military archival research, has obtained a document from 1981 in which then agriculture minister and future prime minister Ariel Sharon proposed to set up the firing zone.

Sharon, in the document, says the military zone declaration will ultimately make it easier to expel the Palestinian residents.

- 'We are the opposite' -

It was not immediately clear if the residents have any further legal recourse to ward off evictions.

Inside Jabbareen's house, where blankets are piled high against a wall, he gestured to a nearby Jewish settlement and reflected on what he termed grossly unequal treatment in the West Bank.

Some 475,000 settlers now live in the West Bank in communities considered illegal under international law, alongside some 2.7 million Palestinians.

They are frequently granted permission to build permanent structures with proper electrical connections, while many Palestinians are denied building permits and live under the threat of eviction, he said.

"They build with concrete," he said of the settlers.

"They are provided with electricity and water. The army is guarding them, but we are just the opposite."

gb/bs/fz/dv

Tokyo to recognise same-sex partnerships from November

Japan is the only Group of Seven nation that does not 

recognise same-sex unions 

(AFP/Philip FONG)


Tue, May 10, 2022

Tokyo will begin recognising same-sex partnerships from November after revising current rules, officials said Wednesday, becoming the largest city in Japan to do so.

Japan is the only nation of the Group of Seven countries that does not recognise same-sex unions, and its constitution stipulates that "marriage shall be only with the mutual consent of both sexes".

But in recent years, local authorities across the country have made moves to recognise same-sex partnerships, although such recognition does not carry the same rights as marriage under the law.

"We collected opinions from the public for the past two months and we heard opinions (from same-sex couples) who said they want to be recognised as partners," a Tokyo government spokesman told AFP.

The metropolitan government plans to ask legislators to approve revising a local ordinance next month, and will then begin accepting applications for the certificates in October and issuing them in November.

The city is considering offering various services currently only available to married couples to those with the partnership certificate, including applying for city-administered apartments, the spokesman said.

Tokyo's Shibuya district in 2015 became the first place in Japan to begin issuing symbolic "partnership" certificates to same-sex couples.

Many areas have followed suit, with activists saying more than 200 municipalities now recognise same-sex partnerships, granting couples rights including the ability to visit a partner in hospital and rent property together.

In a landmark ruling last year, a court in northern Sapporo said Japan's failure to recognise same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a verdict hailed by campaigners as a major victory.

But Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been cautious on the possibility of any legislative changes at the national level to recognise same-sex unions.

Taiwan is currently the only place in Asia with marriage equality, having taken the unprecedented step of legalising same-sex unions in 2019.

nf/sah/mtp

Polygamy: Muslim women in India fight 'abhorrent' practice

Geeta Pandey - BBC News, Delhi
Tue, May 10, 2022,

A Muslim bride in India

A 28-year-old Muslim woman's petition to a court, seeking to prevent her husband from taking another wife without her written consent, has put the spotlight on the practice of polygamy among Indian Muslims.

Reshma, who uses only one name, also wants the Delhi High Court to order the government to frame laws to regulate the "regressive practice" of bigamy or polygamy.

According to court documents, she married Md Shoeb Khan in January 2019 and in November the following year, they had a baby.

Reshma accuses her husband of domestic violence, cruelty, harassment and dowry demands. He has levelled similar allegations against her.

She also says that he's abandoned her and their baby and he plans to take another wife.

Describing his action as "unconstitutional, anti-sharia, illegal, arbitrary, harsh, inhuman and barbaric", she says "this practice needs to be regulated to curb the plight of Muslim women".

While the court dwells on their acrimonious relationship and the legality of polygamy, the case has stirred a debate on the practice which is illegal in India except among Muslims and some tribal communities.

About 2% of the global population lives in polygamous households, according to Pew Research Centre's 2019 report. The practice is banned in much of the world, including in Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey and Tunisia, and is extensively regulated in most countries where it is allowed. The UN has described it as "an inadmissible discrimination against women" and called for it to "be definitely abolished".

But in India, the issue is a political hot potato. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to enact a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) - a contentious piece of legislation that will mean marriages, divorces and inheritance will no longer be governed by their religious law but will come under a common law applicable to all citizens.

And at a time when the country is highly polarised along religious lines, any reform suggested by the government is bound to be considered an onslaught on Islam by a majority of Muslims.

SY Qureshi, former chief election commissioner and scholar of Islam, says in India, "the general perception is that every other Muslim has four wives" and that they have numerous children which will eventually lead to Muslims outnumbering Hindus, but that is not true. (Only 14% of India's 1.3 billion people are Muslims while Hindus make up 80% of the population.)

Muslim men in India are allowed to marry up to four women and the sanction for polygamy, he says, comes from the Quran, but it's permitted only under "strict conditions and restrictions" which are almost impossible to fulfil.

"The Quran says that a man can take a second or a third or a fourth wife but only from among orphans and widows and that he must treat them all equally. Anything else is a violation. But loving equally is almost impossible in practice. It's not just about buying them same clothes, it is much more than that," he adds.

A Muslim marriage

The guidance on polygamy, Mr Qureshi says, was included in the Quran in the 7th Century amid tribal warfare in Arabia when a lot of men died young and polygamy was meant to help widows and orphans. "Otherwise, Quran actually discourages the practice and looks down upon it."

Critics such as women's rights activist Zakia Soman say that today there's no war in India and polygamy - a "misogynistic and patriarchal" practice - must be banned.

Founder of the Mumbai-based Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA - Indian Muslim Women's Movement), Ms Soman says polygamy is "abhorrent - morally, socially and legally" and the fact that "it's legally allowed makes it problematic".

"How can you say that one man can have more than one wife? The community has to move ahead with the times. In today's day and age, it's a gross violation of a woman's dignity and human rights."

In 2017, the BMMA surveyed 289 women who were in polygamous relationships and queried them about their physical, mental, emotional and financial status. They have released a report chronicling 50 cases.

Muslim women fight against instant divorce

The women who sleep with a stranger to save their marriage

"We found that they were trapped in situations that were hugely unjust and for all of them, it had been a traumatic experience and many had developed mental health issues," Ms Soman says.

The BMMA, which had earlier campaigned extensively against the controversial practice of instant divorce in Islam until it was banned a few years back, petitioned the Supreme Court in 2019, calling for a ban on polygamy.

There are other legal challenges too, including one by Ashwini Kumar Dubey, a lawyer and leader of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This has led to accusations from conservative Muslims that it's an interference in their religion.

"In Islam, laws are divine, we look up to the Quran and Hadith for directions. No man has the right to change what was made lawful by Allah," says Dr Asma Zohra, head of the women's wing of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) which is opposing Mr Dubey's petition in court.

Polygamy among Muslims, she says, is "rare and a non-issue" and accuses the BJP of pursuing a "majoritarian agenda to dictate to the minority community".

"Have you ever come across a Muslim man who has four wives? In the year 2022, most men say it's hard to support one wife, leave alone supporting four. And the rate of polygamous marriages is the least in the Muslim community."

Her assertion is based on the data that found polygamy prevalent amongst all religions - a survey based on the sample size of 100,000 marriages by the Census of India in 1961 showed polygamy among Muslims to be 5.7%, the lowest among all communities.

Percentage of population by religion that is polygamous

The subsequent Census have been silent on the issue and most recent data on polygamy comes from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) of 2005-06 which shows a steep decline in the numbers for all religions:

Polygamy has declined among all religions

"Since this data is quite outdated, we have to look at the trends. So if we analyse the Census data from 1930 to 1960, there was a consistent decline in polygamy among all communities and in each decade, it was lowest among the Muslims," says Mr Qureshi, adding that the NFHS study is the only exception.

In his 2021 book The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India, Mr Qureshi calls on the Muslim community to demand a ban on polygamy. "If it's not practised widely, then what do you have to lose by a ban?" he asks.

The reason for that, Dr Zohra says, are religious - and political.

How Muslim women fought, and won, divorce battle

What a breakfast murder says about wife beating in India

"It's people saying Muslims are so rigid, but the provision is in the holy book and no-one can change that. Many tribal communities in the north-east have multiple wives and no-one targets them, then why do you target us? It's part of Islamophobia."

All this talk of a ban on polygamy, she says, is an attack on the community, an "interference in their personal religious laws".

Ms Soman agrees that at a time when the country is polarised along religious lines, Muslims are suspicious of the BJP government's intentions.

But, she says, that "if we don't set our house in order, others will come and do it - and they may have an agenda".

"But polygamy is a practice which, in the end, is violative of women's rights and it must go."

Data interpretation and graphics by BBC's Shadab Nazmi

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/polygamy-is-not-polyamoury.html

Family of Marine freed from Russian custody rejects Ted Cruz's claim that he helped get him home: 'We are not appreciative'


Hannah Getahun
Mon, May 9, 2022, 8:59 PM·3 min read

Joey and Paula Reed with a portrait of their son, the Marine veteran Trevor Reed, at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, in February.

AP Photo/LM Otero, File

Ted Cruz expressed public relief that the US citizen Trevor Reed was released from Russian prison.

Reed's father said he was not "appreciative" of Cruz's lack of action in helping to free his son.

A family spokesperson told Insider Cruz could've used his influence to speak with President Trump.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas "didn't do anything" to aid in the Marine Trevor Reed's release from Russian custody, Reed's father, Joey Reed, said.

Trevor Reed was detained in Moscow in 2019 after being convicted of attacking Russian police. He suffered during his stay in a Russian prison, including getting a suspected broken rib and catching COVID-19, his family has said.

He was released on April 27 as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the US. Reed was swapped for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced for drug smuggling.

"He didn't do anything," Joey Reed said of Cruz in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. "He's an embarrassment to the state of Texas, let me just say that. I don't care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a bitch."

The father was so dissatisfied with Cruz' actions surrounding his son that when Cruz called to congratulate the Reed family after publicly showing support for his son's release, the elder Reed said he asked: "Where have you been for the last 2 1/2 years?"

"I hit him point-blank: 'We are not appreciative,'" Reed told The Dallas Morning News.

"They don't need celebratory tweets or phone calls when their loved one has been released," Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for the Reeds, told Insider. "They need tweets and phone calls when their loved ones are in jail."

Reed called Cruz asking for help years prior, but Cruz's staff said he couldn't speak out about his son's detainment publicly because the senator was an "enemy of Putin," Reed said.

Franks told Insider the call between the Reeds and Cruz's staff member was "unfortunate" and that the senator had not called to check in again until Trevor Reed's release.

Franks also said that it was not a partisan attack — rather, the family wanted to emphasize that Cruz's outsize influence in the world of politics could have been beneficial to the family's fight.

"Particularly when Trump was president, it would've helped a lot if Ted Cruz had picked up the phone and called the president and said, 'Bring this kid home.'" Franks told Insider. "We were almost there. Like, he could have picked up the phone, called Trump, and told him to make a deal."

Franks told Insider that he could not confirm if Cruz had taken such an action privately without the family's knowledge.

Cruz said he did not speak out partly because administration officials told him it could be "counterproductive" since he had been so against Russia's proposed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, he told The Dallas Morning News in a statement.

Joey Reed told the news outlet that GOP Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas also publicly went against the Nord Stream 2 and had still been a vocal advocate for Trevor Reed's release.

Representatives for Cruz did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Business Insider

Trump’s Former Fixer Says Missing Tapes Would Prove Trump Lied

Jose Pagliery
Mon, May 9, 2022,

Jose Pagliery/The Daily Beast

Michael Cohen—former President Donald Trump’s one-time fixer, lawyer, and consigliere—walked into an acrimonious deposition Monday morning to testify that his former boss lied under oath and ordered his security guards to get “rid of” protesters they later beat up.

He also said evidence showing Trump lied was likely destroyed.

Cohen recently surfaced as a surprise witness in a lawsuit over the way Trump Organization corporate security goons attacked demonstrators protesting the way then-candidate Trump called Mexicans “rapists.” He claims he was in the room when Trump made the order. The company says that’s a lie.

Trump Organization Accused of Hiding Witness Who Knew if Trump Lied

But what will inevitably devolve into an evidence-less “he said, he said” situation could have been resolved with two Trump Tower corporate security videotapes—which mysteriously disappeared.

According to court paperwork listing the evidence at the upcoming trial, the demonstrators who sued only got one building surveillance tape, which purportedly shows corporate security chief Keith Schiller making his way through the lobby to fight demonstrators outside the building on New York City’s Fifth Avenue.

But the building regularly took security video on the 26th floor outside Trump’s office and in the elevator, which would easily prove if what Cohen claims is true—that he was in the room when Trump allegedly gave the order and walked alongside Schiller out of the suite and down the lift.

Cohen claimed Monday those tapes were probably destroyed. He also said security tapes were overseen by Trump Organization chief operating officer Matthew Calamari, a Trump loyalist who would never allow his boss to be embarrassed or implicated in criminal behavior by allowing incriminating evidence to “come to light.”

“The truth is the truth, and the truth never benefits Donald,” he said to reporters waiting across the street from Manhattan’s iconic Grand Central Terminal.

Trump Admits He Oversaw Pay for Executive Who Got Fishy Perks

Calamari already testified in this case back in 2016 and did not seem to reveal anything damning against the company. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.

The Daily Beast pointed out that Cohen would be face-to-face with Trump’s newest bulldog lawyer, Alina Habba, a relatively unknown attorney from New Jersey who has become a prominent fixture on MAGA-friendly media outlets.

When asked how he felt about battling someone who used to have his job, the lawyer who took the fall for Trump’s porn star hush-money scheme, lost his law license, and spent years in federal prison issued a warning.

“It’s a mistake and unfortunately, as we all know, it didn’t work out well for me. I don’t suspect it’ll work out well for her,” he said.

Cohen then walked into the building for his 10 a.m. appointment at the offices of the law firm Belkin Burden Goldman, one of several representing Trump.

The One Trump Lawyer the Rest of Trump’s Legal Team Loathes

Minutes later, Habba showed up on 42nd Street in a chauffeured, black SUV and walked into the same building.

“I think there’ve been enough courts that have spoken on his credibility,” she said. “I think it’s ironic he’s come out of the woodwork a couple of weeks before trial. And the truth will come out. I actually look forward to spending a few hours questioning Mr. Cohen.”

Although this case is an otherwise forgettable tale about raging corporate security guards in the early days of Trump’s political campaign, it’s already presenting the potential to land the twice-impeached former president in serious trouble.

When he testified behind closed doors last year, Trump admitted to personally overseeing Calamari’s compensation—which includes untaxed, corporate perks that have been investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Saudi Arabia warns that the world is running out of energy capacity: 

'I have never seen these things'

Phil Rosen
Tue, May 10, 2022,

The EU is planning a complete ban on Russian oil imports.

Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned Tuesday that the world is "running out of energy capacity at all levels."

"I am a dinosaur, but I have never seen these things," he said at a conference.

A UAE official also warned that more investment is needed in the energy sector for OPEC+ to deliver sufficient supplies.

The amount of unused capacity that the world can tap to produce more energy products is running out, warned top oil ministers.

Referring to recent price spikes for refined products, Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a Tuesday conference, "I am a dinosaur, but I have never seen these things," according to Bloomberg.

"The world needs to wake up to an existing reality. The world is running out of energy capacity at all levels," he added.

Prices for crude oil have surged more than 50% from a year ago to roughly $105 a barrel. But prices for refined products like diesel have soared even higher. In the US, diesel prices are up 78% to $5.50 a gallon, Bloomberg data shows.

The United Arab Emirates' oil minister said OPEC+ may not be able to deliver on sufficient energy supplies down the line without more investments.

"We've been warning about the lack of investment," Suhail al Mazrouei said in an interview in Abu Dhabi, Bloomberg reported. "That lack of investment is catching up with a lot of countries."

Mazrouei added that "politicization" of the oil market has pushed supply prices higher.

Meanwhile, the European Union is weighing a full embargo on Russian oil in an attempt to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow for its war on Ukraine. In the event of the oil ban, one analyst predicted Russia would have to slash its oil production within "a year or two."

Saudis, UAE: The World Has A Serious Energy Spare Capacity Problem

Editor OilPrice.com
Tue, May 10, 2022, 

Persistently low investment in conventional energy sources risks leaving the world running out of spare production capacity for crude oil, refined products, and natural gas, the energy ministers of two of OPEC’s top producers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said on Tuesday.

Officials from the oil and gas producing countries in the Middle East have been warning for months—even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine—that recent low investments in new fields and production capacity would lead to dwindling energy capacity production once the global economy recovers from the COVID slump of 2020.

At a conference in Abu Dhabi today, the Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said that “The world needs to wake up to an existing reality.”

“The world is running out of energy capacity at all levels,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, as carried by Bloomberg.

Not enough investment in global refining capacity is one of the key drivers of the global rally in gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel prices, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday, reiterating the Kingdom’s view that a rushed transition to cleaner energy fails to take into account realities.

If the industry is discouraged from investments, this will lead to a lack of supply, which will translate into inflation, and that will affect the end consumer, the minister said at the Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh.

At the Tuesday conference in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said that OPEC+ may not be able to guarantee enough supply when the world fully recovers from the COVID crash in demand.

The UAE minister also said that the extreme volatility in the oil market in recent weeks is the result of some buyers boycotting certain crudes; it is not connected with OPEC+ and is outside the alliance’s control, in an apparent reference to the boycott of Russian oil from Western buyers.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are actually the only two oil producers believed to have sufficient spare oil production capacity, but they are unwilling to tap it, saying the market is balanced and any extreme volatility is the result of geopolitical factors.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

AKA BRASCAN

Brookfield Decides to Spin Off Its Asset-Management Unit

Layan Odeh and Scott Deveau
Tue, May 10, 2022, 


(Bloomberg) -- Brookfield Asset Management Inc. plans to spin off its asset-management business, according to a person familiar with the matter -- a step designed to simplify the organizational structure at one of the world’s largest alternative investment firms.

The new publicly traded entity will control Brookfield’s fee-generating assets, such as real estate, infrastructure, credit, private equity and renewable energy. The unit’s assets under management were $364 billion as of Dec. 31.

The move will make the Toronto-based firm “asset-light,” a model preferred by investors, as it gives it the option to buy into the asset management unit without taking a piece of its skyscrapers and gas pipelines. Earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt told investors that the unit could have an equity value of as much as $100 billion.

A spokesperson for Brookfield declined to comment. Insider reported on the plans earlier.

Flatt said in February that the firm was weighing such a spinoff.

“Its growth path on its own is very compelling,” Flatt said in an investor letter at the time. “Pure-play managers have been more in vogue across global markets because they are easier to value and have attracted higher multiples.”

Brookfield, with $690 billion of assets under management, owns stakes in all its other publicly listed entities. Its balance sheet includes London’s Canary Wharf, One Manhattan West in New York, as well as numerous shopping malls, among other assets.

Brookfield has a history of building businesses and then listing them after they gain scale. Last year, for example, it spun off its reinsurance arm, Brookfield Asset Management Reinsurance Partners Ltd., through a special dividend to shareholders. It did the same thing with its private equity unit, Brookfield Business Partners, and its renewable energy operations, Brookfield Renewable Partners, among others.

Shares of Brookfield rose 1.2% at 1:02 p.m. in Toronto, paring their decline this year to 20%.

Brookfield Asset Management - Wikipedia

NORTH CAROLINA

As copperhead sightings increase in Onslow, what to know about the venomous snake


Morgan Starling, The Daily News
Mon, May 9, 2022, 

Biologist Jeff Hall said he hears many describe the copperheads' marks as a line of Hershey kisses.

As Onslow weather heats up, so does snake activity, and residents have their eyes peeled for one kind in particular: the copperhead.

Jeff Hall, a biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Commission, said copperheads can survive in a wide variety of habitat types to include where people live. He said part of that is because of their varied diet.

"Because they eat all those different types of prey, they can live in lots of different places and they're quite adaptable," Hall said. "Relatively speaking, it's a common species across the state, and certainly Eastern North Carolina is no different than that."

Hall said copperheads eat everything from insect larvae, to amphibians like frogs and salamanders, other reptiles like lizards and small snakes, birds, and a variety of small mammals.

Related coverage: Wildlife Commission warns Onslow of bat roosting season, provides tips on how to evict

"Unlike some larger species of snakes, they seem to tolerate human development reasonably well," Hall said. "As long as there's a little patch of woods here, a little creek or drain there, something like that, you know, you're going to see copperheads around."

However, copperheads are not as dangerous as many may think.

Hall said that while copperheads are venomous, they are fairly low in terms of their danger level, and there has only ever been one recorded fatality in North Carolina. That fatality, according to Hall, was a 1-year-old child in the 1950s.

He said although a copperhead's effective dose is not usually a big issue for most healthy adults, anytime you're bitten by a snake you believe could be venomous, seek medical attention.

"There is no reason for anyone who thinks they were bitten by a venomous snake to not go to the doctor," Hall said.

"It's not something that people need to worry they're going to die from, but there can be some sorts of complications like tissue damage or things of that nature. So, if bitten, you definitely want to seek medical attention."

Hall did recommend not to use tourniquets or any of the old "suck and cut" tools, because they can cause more harm than good.

Onslow residents are posting their sightings on Facebook, and Hall said they are much more scared of you, than you are of them.

Hubert resident Sadie Floyd encountered a copperhead outside her home last week.

"Most species of snakes, copperheads included, are fairly low on the food chain," Hall said. "So, there are a lot of things that want to eat them. So, as a result, camouflage is just monumentally important for all snake species. Their goal is to try and remain hidden at all times, if they can."

Related coverage: What's that sound? Onslow likely to see increase in coyotes next few months

Hall said copperheads will come out if they're looking for water, a place to hide, a mate or something to eat. He said these instances are typically when they're spotted by residents.

"If we just get out of their way, they're going to go ahead and do whatever it is that they need to do and we don't need to have any issues with that," Hall said. "If we give animals time and space, they're going to generally move on and get out of the way."

Hall said to note the size difference between snakes and humans, and realize snakes are usually afraid they're going to be lunch when they see a human.

"Generally speaking, when people have encounters with snakes that they're fearful of, it's because the snake is being defensive, because it's afraid it's going to become a meal," Hall said. "One of the most important things that people can do to help learn and know about what's around them, is to learn the snake species that are in the area where they live."

Hall said this is important because copperheads are often misidentified.

"Almost every time someone sees a snake and they don't know what it is, they assume it's a copperhead," Hall said. "That is just not, it's very very frequent that's not true."

Hall said snakes frequently misidentified are juvenile rat snakes and juvenile black racers. While they both have blotched patterns, adult black racers are solid black, while rat snakes are a green-gray color with four black stripes that go down the length of the body, at least in the Onslow County area, Hall said.

On the other hand, Hall said copperheads have bands that go around their sides, in the shape of an hourglass.

"I've had people say if you look down the side, it looks like a row of Hershey's kisses on the side," Hall said. "If you see a snake that has blotches, not bands, it's not going to be a copperhead."

Copperheads are fairly low on the venom spectrum, with only one recorded fatality ever in North Carolina.

Hall added that freshly-born copperheads, often seen in the late summer-early fall, have brightly colored tail tips, usually bright yellow or chartreuse.

"So, if you see a little bitty banded snake that has a brightly colored tail tip, like I said, that brightly colored green, then you know for sure that's a copperhead," Hall said.

For those hoping to keep the little guys out of their yards and homes, Hall said there's really nothing you can do to completely make sure you never see one, but there are ways to reduce the chances.

He said it's a good idea to check around your home to make sure there are no gaps or holes, and remove any brush piles or piles of wood/debris, as snakes and other small animals tend to like to hang out there.

"The other thing you can do is don't do a lot of mulching around your house, or don't have lots of bushes around your house," Hall said. "One other thing they can do is mow their grass a little more frequently, keeping it as low as possible. Basically, a yard with grass in it is a desert for most wildlife."

Hall added that if a snake does turn up in your well-kept yard, it's not going to stay for long. However, he did say if you've got bird feeders, you should probably remove those if you want to make sure snakes stay out of your yard.

"People that are absolutely petrified should remove everything from their yard that would potentially attract wildlife," Hall said.

Hall encouraged residents to learn more about the snakes in the area, and realize that they are another part of the ENC wildlife, that they can be enjoyed.

"Snakes have fascinating lives," Hall said. "They have some fascinating behaviors, and many of them are very beautifully colored like corn snakes and eastern hog nose snakes, so if people learn a little bit more about them and become a little bit less fearful, they can also be enjoyed as part of the wildlife of our state."

Related coverage: Did you know: Onslow area has the biggest black bears in the country

For those interested in learning more about the types of snakes in Onslow, or to identify the slithery creature in your yard, visit herpsofnc.org.

In addition, Hall said the Wildlife Commission is trying to keep up with the rattlesnakes in the area, and encouraged residents to report sightings. If you see a rattlesnake, report the sighting to rattlesnake@ncwildlife.org.

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Copperhead sightings increasing in Onslow: What to know about the snake

Copperhead lurking in toolbox bites man fumbling around for wrench, Texas photos show

Mitchell Willetts
Mon, May 9, 2022,

All Mark Holton wanted was a wrench, but he got a finger full of needle-like teeth instead.

The Texas man was doing maintenance on a circular saw at his home near Midlothian on the morning of May 3, he told McClatchy News. But as he fumbled around his toolbox, feeling for the right tool, he unknowingly angered a snake that had slithered into a drawer.

“Suddenly I saw and felt something hit my index finger,” Holton said. “I opened the drawer the rest of the way and there laid a copperhead snake.”

The three-foot venomous snake sat coiled among the screwdrivers and wrenches, ready to defend its newfound home, photos shared by Holton’s neighbor, Matt Morris, show.

Mark Holton couldn’t see the snake until he fully opened the drawer.

A tiny bit of blood ran from Holton’s finger. He’d clearly been bitten, but the snake apparently injected little or none of its painful, flesh-destroying venom.

“My neighbor Matt loves to catch and relocate snakes so I called him and told him about the snake,” Holton said.

“He came over and suggested I go see a physician, but I wasn’t feeling any pain and decided against it.”

While a snake’s teeth are small, they have the potential to deliver large doses of venom.

While “dry bites” do happen, they are rare, and experts warn that people should “always assume it’s going to be an envenomation” when bitten by a venomous snake.

“I was very lucky,” Holton said.

Holton’s home backs up to around 400 acres of woods, he said, meaning he’s seen plenty of snakes both dangerous and harmless over the years. But they tend to respect his space.

“I have had many encounters with snakes, but never (had) one strike me,” Holton said.

Midlothian is about 30 miles southeast of Fort Worth.

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Green Party leaders urge Sask. government to halt small nuclear reactor plans


Mon, May 9, 2022

An illustration shows a NuScale Power Module on a truck. NuScale is one of the small modular reactor companies whose designs are going through pre-licencing approval with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Many are designed to be small enough to transport by truck or by shipping container. (NuScale Power - image credit)

The interim Leader of the Green Party of Canada made a stop in Regina Monday to urge Premier Scott Moe to abandon his plans for small nuclear reactor (SNR) development.

The province announced in 2019 that it was looking at developing a plan to use SNRs to lower carbon emissions.

Last month, the province said it had gone ahead with the plan and will be partnering with Ontario, New Brunswick and Alberta to develop SMRs, four of which will be in Saskatchewan.

Amita Kuttner visited Regina Monday alongside Saskatchewan Green Party leader Naomi Hunter. Kuttner said from their short time in Saskatchewan, they see the province has great potential for green energy development.

"It is so obvious to me that community based power and the immediate solutions around renewables is really what we should be doing and not heading down the path of nuclear, which takes too long in a true emergency," they said.

"We see over and over again the supposed climate plans put forward [that] involve solutions that take decades to come to pass when really we have very few years to turn everything around."

Kuttner said more immediate action, such as developing wind, solar and geothermal energy, is needed to achieve net zero emissions.

They said reaching net zeros by 2050 is not enough and that Canada needs to reach negative emissions by that time to reduce the effects of climate change.

SNRs will create jobs, province says

The Government of Saskatchewan said the development of SNRs is not only safe but will use uranium from Saskatchewan, enhance nuclear research while creating jobs in construction and facilities operations.

"This is not how a just transition works," Hunter said. "Oil and gas companies [here] need to be looking like they are through the rest of the world."

She said in Europe, such companies are diversifying and making sure they are proactively protecting their workers during the transition into renewable energy.

Hunter said the proposed nuclear jobs would not transition the way other renewable energy jobs would.

The province's plan says 12,455 jobs would be created during manufacturing and construction, with 1,469 jobs available during operations. It is not specified how many of these jobs would be in Saskatchewan.