- Direct [link] to the mp3 file
- Experimental IPFS RSS Feed
- Executive Producers:
- Sir Tooth Fairy Christmas Knight of the Dirt Pit Blasters
- Associate Executive Producers:
- Become a member of the 1514 Club, support the show here
- Title Changes
- Viscount Christopher> Earl Christopher
- Sir Rob, Knight of the Philanthropic Shareholders Federation> BARON of Greater Limburg.
- Knights & Dames
- Emily Blessinger [pronunciation: Blessing-er] > Emily, Dame of the shufflecrats.
- Joe> Sir Tooth Fairy Christmas Knight of the Dirt Pit Blasters
- Nick Leary> Sir Leary, Knight of Central Ohio Meetups.
- Matt> Sir Movie Matt Of Long Island
- EL Duderachi> Sir Detective Duderachi, Black Knight
- End of Show Mixes: Jesse Coy Nelson - That Lrry Show - Sir Michaeanthony
- Engineering, Stream Management & Wizardry
- Mark van Dijk - Systems Master
- Ryan Bemrose - Program Director
- Clip Custodian: Neal Jones
- https://noagendaassets.com/enc/1671402605.417_na-1513-art-big.png
- TODAY
- Elon & Jared @ Wordl Cup Together
- Reminder: Always send the link [with context!]
- Elon / Twitter
- Journos now more hated than lawyers
- Our Reporting at Twitter Bari Weiss
- In the days that followed, we—the journalist Matt Taibbi; investigative reporters connected to The Free Press, including Abigail Shrier, Michael Shellenberger and Leighton Woodhouse; plus Free Press reporters Suzy Weiss, Peter Savodnik, Olivia Reingold, and Isaac Grafstein—camped out in a windowless, fluorescent-lit room at Twitter headquarters and began looking through the company’s vast archive of internal communications.
- The only condition Musk imposed was that we first publish our findings on Twitter itself. (We did. Today, on The Free Press, we are publishing versions of those stories that aren’t limited to 280-character chunks.)
- Twitter was founded in 2006. It is impossible to calculate how many emails and internal Slack messages and reports it has generated over the years. Looking for information about big subjects relevant to the public—the question of whether Covid-19 started with a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, say, and how the platform suppressed or shaped the conversation around it—is like trying to put together a 100,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
- We also had to work through lawyers using e-discovery tools—software designed for lawyers to help them search huge amounts of information. So we entered search terms—mostly dates and names of former Twitter executives—and, over many hours, files would pop up. We then stitched together a chronology of events and communications.
- We did not selectively retrieve, or cherry-pick, files with an eye toward servicing a particular agenda. Our goal was simply to figure out what had happened at crucial moments in the history of the country and the company.
- Climate Change
- Fusion facts BOTG
- Hey Adam, I did a lot of work for NIF on the fuel pellet system. The thing that never gets said out loud is that there is no real source of tritium on earth. All bomb and commercial tritium has come from reactors that are now shut down. The US has no source of tritium on shore (I’m excluding the tiny amounts recovered from natural gas wells). We get all of our tritium from Canada that still has a few reactor that produce.
- People say there is an unlimited amount of hydrogen, which is true, and there is a massive amount of naturally occurring deuterium, also true. But there is virtually no natural or man-made tritium.
- Cheers. (Sir Kevin Smith).
- Fusion confusion - American Thinker
- The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore Lab (LLL) in Northern California has recently gotten a lot of attention. It was just announced that they finally fused some hydrogen atoms and got more energy out than they put in — a net positive result. Drew Magary, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, throws a little cold water on the event by adding that the lasers causing the fusion reaction were powered by electricity generated at way less than perfect efficiency.
- Throwing more cold water, I was told by someone who worked on the facility in question that they already had a net positive event about fifteen years ago. I suggested that they might be tooting their horn now in order to get a bump in funding. He agreed.
- Climate change: Deal on a more ambitious Emissions Trading System (ETS) | News | European Parliament
- On Saturday night, MEPs and EU governments agreed to reform the Emissions Trading System to further reduce industrial emissions and invest more in climate friendly technologies.
- The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which enshrines the “polluter pays” principle, is at the core of European climate policy and key to achieving the objective of EU climate-neutrality. By putting a price on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the ETS has triggered significant reductions in EU emissions, as industries have an incentive to reduce their emissions and invest in climate friendly technologies.
- Iedereen in Europa gaat betalen voor CO2-uitstoot
- Burgers en bedrijven moeten gaan betalen voor de CO2 uit de uitlaat en de schoorsteen. Dat gaat via energiebedrijven en pompstations. Zij moeten betalen voor emissierechten en rekenen de kosten vervolgens door aan de klant die komt tanken of de gaskachel aanzet.
- Food Intelligence
- Believer Meats breaks ground on US cultivated meat production facility - FoodBev Media
- Believer Meats, formerly known as Future Meat Technologies, has begun construction of a 200,000-square-foot commercial-scale production facility.
- Once fully operational, the site will have “the capacity to produce at least 10,000 metric tons of cultivated meat,” making it the largest facility of its kind, according to Believer Meats.
- The project represents an initial investment of around $123.35 million in Wilson County, North Carolina, which is located approximately 40 miles east of the state’s capital city, Raleigh. The Israeli company plans to create more than 100 new jobs over the next three years.
- The facility will feature proprietary bioreactors that can achieve high cell densities and yield based on patented processes. It will also house an R&D and innovation centre.
- Ukraine Russia
- Homophobia: the conspiracy theory behind Russian fascism
- On 5 December Vladimir Putin decided it was worth his while to take a break from his disastrous invasion of Ukraine and find the time to enact a homophobic law. By the new tsar’s decree, it is now an offence for Russians to promote or “praise” LGBTQ+ relationships, or suggest that they are “normal”.
- The law covers the entire population of the Russian Federation: not just teachers in charge of children. Booksellers reacted by pulling “decadent” novels from their shelves. Lesbians in St Petersburg spoke of their “mere existence” becoming a crime.
- That Putin regards homophobia as a means of rallying a credulous population during a failing war is the best evidence I have seen of his imitation of the tyrannies of the 20th century. Only by making sexuality his main scapegoat does he show a glimmer of originality.
- Both the Nazis and the communists killed gay men. But they were not at the root of their conspiracy theories, which remained focused on Jews in the case of Germany and the bourgeoisie in the case of the Soviet Union. After Stalin criminalised sodomy in 1934, communists denounced it as a “bourgeois degeneracy”. (The bourgeoisie came first.)
- Africa
- Visa to Invest in Africa's Digital Transformation | PYMNTS.com
- Visa has pledged to invest $1 billion in Africa to accelerate digital transformation.
- The announcement was made during the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in Washington Wednesday (Dec. 14).
- Visa will use the money to scale operations, deploy new technologies and deepen collaboration with its partners in the next five years. These include merchants, governments, financial institutions (FIs), FinTechs and mobile network operators, according to a corresponding press release.
- The inclusion of mobile network operators reflects the different role Visa plays in Africa’s payment ecosystem compared to the United States.
- As well as acting as a partner to banks that issue credit and debit cards, Visa’s African operations require it to work alongside the continent’s mobile money and alternative payment FinTechs, which use solutions including mobile wallets and virtual cards to bring digital payments to unbanked populations.
- VAERS
- Damage Averted: Estimating the Effects of Covid-19 Vaccines on Hospitalizations, Mortality and Costs in Canada | C.D. Howe Institute | Canada Economy News | Canadian Government Policy
- " Vaccines can also alleviate stress and anxiety caused by the threat of infection and lockdowns."
- Big Pharma
- Why You Might Be Having Trouble Buying Children’s Flu and Cold Medicine - WSJ
- 1. They blame the “early” flu season, it’s the same time every year.
- 2. The byline is written by someone from Abbott Labs / Abbvie - big pharma now gets to literally write the narrative with NYT.
- 3. They aren’t addressing a wide outage of aspirin or ibuprofen - cheap, generic, effective otc
- 4. They aren’t doing much about big shortages in alfentanil, fentanyl, ketamine, rocuronium, lorazepam or albumin - getting hard to perform anesthesia all are also cheap, generic, effective
- 5. They blame covid. Whatever. But fail to discuss that monoclonal antibody treatments are not EUA anymore - cheap, effective; but full steam ahead on paxlovid and lagevrio - expensive and not really effective (~30-40%. As John says, worse than a coin flip).
- BLM LGBBTQQIAAPK+ Noodle Boy
- Norwegian filmmaker faces three years in prison for saying a man cannot become a lesbian - Rebel News
- Tonje Gjevjon, a lesbian filmmaker and actress, was informed on Nov. 17 that she was under investigation for a post on her Facebook page that read, "It’s just as impossible for men to become a lesbian as it is for men to become pregnant. Men are men regardless of their sexual fetishes."
- The post was in response to a prominent Norwegian trans activist, Christine Jentoft, who is a transgender biological male who identifies as a “lesbian mother” and a “gaymer.” Jentoft had previously accused another woman, Christina Ellingsen, of transphobia for a similar claim. Ellingsen is also under investigation and faces three years in jail if found guilty, as reported by Rebel News.
- Gjevjon has said that she intentionally posted her Facebook message to draw attention to Norway’s hate speech laws, which were amended in 2020 to add "gender identity and gender expression" under protected categories from hate speech, Reduxx reported.
- STORIES
- Live updates: France vs Argentina in the 2022 World Cup final
- 1 min ago Argentina wins the 2022 World Cup in an instant-classicArgentina players celebrate after winning the World Cup. (Matthew Ashton/AMA/Getty Images)It took 90 minutes of regulation, 30 minutes of extra time and a penalty kick shootout to decide it '-- but Argentina is the 2022 World Cup champion.
- It was the two superstars who stepped up first for their sides in the shootout. France kicked first and Kylian Mbapp(C), who had a hat trick in the game, blasted it by Argentina's Emiliano Martnez.
- Next up was the legend. Lionel Messi approached the spot and calmly rolled one in to tie it up.
- That tit for tat exchange was fitting for a match where each side's talisman turned in an inspired performance.
- But after that, France missed their next two attempts to give Argentina a big advantage. And after Gonzalo Montiel made it four in a row for Argentina, it was over.
- Going into the shootout, the two sides were tied at 3-3 after some truly epic moments of open play.
- Messi's two goals helped La Albiceleste capture their third World Cup and first since Diego Maradona led the team to glory in 1986 in Mexico.
- The defending champion France was seeking to become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles in 60 years (Brazil 1958, 1962).
- Despite the loss, France's Kylian Mbapp(C)'s hat trick secured him the Golden Boot, awarded to the tournament's leading goal scorer.
- 11 min ago Shootout for World Cup glory: France vs ArgentinaAfter 90 minutes of regulation and two 15-minute periods of extra time, France and Argentina are still deadlocked in this instant-classic World Cup final.
- How it works: Each team will get the chance to take five penalty kicks, and whichever side scores the most wins.
- 22 min ago Unbelievable! We're heading to penalties to decide the 2022 World CupIt looked like Lionel Messi had done it.
- After a stunning second-half French comeback '-- thanks to two goals in about 90 seconds by young superstar Kylian Mbapp(C) '-- France and Argentina went to extra time to decide the 2022 World Cup champion.
- Early in the second period of extra time, Messi, who had already scored on a penalty kick in the first half of the game, took the ball on a rebound from a Hugo Lloris save and flicked it toward the goal. France's defense managed to clear Messi's offering off the line, but it had crossed over and Argentina was ultimately awarded the goal.
- But it wouldn't be enough. In the 116th minute of this epic final, France was awarded a penalty. Already having scored twice, Kylian Mbapp(C) stepped up looking to tie the match yet again. And he did just that. It's a hat trick for the 23-year-old.
- It'll now be penalty kicks to decide the champion at the 2022 World Cup. This is absolutely unreal.
- 25 min ago Late penalty for France '-- and Mbapp(C) does it! Kylian Mbappe scores his penalty to tie the game at 3-3 in extra time. (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)In the 116th minute of this epic final, France was awarded a penalty.
- Kylian Mbapp(C) stepped up looking to tie the match yet again. And he scored!
- It's a hat trick for the 23-year-old.
- 33 min ago GOAL! Messi breaks through in extra timeMessi the magician!
- The legend got his second goal of the match and gave Argentina the lead in the second period of extra time.
- The stadium has just erupted in euphoria, and there was an even bigger cheer when Messi was confirmed as the scorer. He's now leading the race for the Golden Boot again, because he has the edge in assists, the award's tiebreaker.
- CNN's Don Riddell contributed to this report from inside Lusail Stadium.
- 36 min ago Argentina and France still locked at 2-2 after first period of extra timeArgentina and France are still tied 2-2 after the first 15-minute period of extra time at the 2022 World Cup final.
- After a frantic first period, La Albiceleste had two opportunities to regain its lead, but the first ricocheted off France's defense and the second slid wide of the goal.
- The two sides will go another 15 minutes to see if either team can find a match-winning goal.
- If neither side is leading after that, it'll be a penalty kick shootout to decide the champ.
- 50 min ago France's shock equalizer took some wind out of the sails of Argentina's boisterous fansFrom CNN's Don Riddell in Doha
- The Argentina fan in front of me at Lusail Stadium is cutting a pretty dejected figure right now.
- For most of the match, he's been on his feet, pumping his fists, singing the songs.
- Now he tells me he's ''afraid'' about what comes next. He's slumped back into his chair.
- ''We should have killed the game off when we had the chance," he told me. "I am not in a good mood.''
- It's all tied in extra time of an instant-classic World Cup final.
- 56 min ago Extra time begins at the World Cup finalWe're now in extra time after a wild 90 minutes in Qatar.
- Argentina and France are deadlocked at 2 goals apiece going into extra time.
- Remember: The two sides will now play two 15-minute periods of extra time. If no team is leading after that, it'll be a penalty kick shootout to decide the champ.
- 48 min ago With back-to-back goals, Mbapp(C) is suddenly ahead of Messi in the Golden Boot race Argentina's Lionel Messi, left, and France's Kylian Mbapp(C). (Getty Images)The race for the Golden Boot '-- the award for the player who scores the most goals in the tournament '-- hung in the balance heading into Sunday's clash between Argentina and France.
- With his first-half goal on a penalty kick, Argentina's Lionel Messi pulled one ahead of France's Kylian Mbapp(C).
- But with two goals in the span of about 90 seconds in the second half, Mbapp(C) leapfrogged the legend in the goal count. He now leads Messi by one heading to extra time in the final.
- Here's where things stand:
- Kylian Mbapp(C) (France) (2 assists)6 goals
- Lionel Messi (Argentina) (3 assists)Tiebreaker explained: According to FIFA's criteria, if two players have scored an equal number of goals at the end of the World Cup, the one with the most assists gets the Golden Boot award.
- If two or more players are equal on both goals and assists, then the person who played the fewest minutes in the tournament (thus, scoring their goals in a shorter period of time) will win the award.
- Woke Religion: A Taxonomy
- Michael Shellenberger and I wrote ''Woke Religion: A Taxonomy'' to help people understand the woke religion.
- I want to be crystal clear about something: bigotry and racial discrimination are real and they have no place in society. Yes, there is ongoing racism. Yes, there is ongoing homophobia. Yes, there is ongoing hatred of trans people. These are morally abhorrent and we all need to work together to bring about their end. The woke religion, however, is not the way to stop these moral horrors. It is making our shared problems more difficult to solve.
- This is the spirit in which we offer this taxonomy.
- French prosecutors raid General Electric site on tax fraud probe -AFP | Reuters
- Dec 15 (Reuters) - Prosecutors searched U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co's (GE.N) industrial site in eastern France on Thursday as part of an inquiry into claims it avoided millions of euros in taxes by transferring profits abroad, AFP reported.
- The tax inquiry was started after Fabien Roussel, the head of France's Communist Party, told authorities in July 2019 of his "suspicions of tax optimisation and fraud" by the company, the report said.
- GE and France's National Financial Prosecutors' Office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
- Tensions between unions and GE management have run high as the company cut hundreds of French jobs on slumping demand for gas turbines and other power-generation equipment, the report added.
- In 2019, General Electric had announced a plan to cut around 1,000 jobs in France, principally at its site in Belfort, to cut costs.
- The works' council and unions at the site filed a complaint in May last year, alleging that GE had transferred 555 million euros ($589.58 million) of profit from the Belfort site to Switzerland or the United States, according to the report.
- The unions also accused the company of trying to show the site was losing money in order to justify the job cuts, AFP said.
- Reporting by Gokul Pisharody in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Bill Berkrot
- Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
- Why You Might Be Having Trouble Buying Children's Flu and Cold Medicine - WSJ
- P&G says plants making NyQuil and Vicks running around the clock
- Updated Dec. 15, 2022 10:13 am ETU.S. households are stepping up spending on cough and cold medicines and children's pain relievers amid a rise in reports of respiratory infections, leading to sporadic shortages of some drugs online and at stores.
- Flu infections and hospitalizations are surging across the country, federal data suggests, on top of an already busy season for other respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. These viruses are common in the fall and winter months, but the sharp, early increases have roiled families and...
- Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
- U.S. households are stepping up spending on cough and cold medicines and children's pain relievers amid a rise in reports of respiratory infections, leading to sporadic shortages of some drugs online and at stores.
- Flu infections and hospitalizations are surging across the country, federal data suggests, on top of an already busy season for other respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. These viruses are common in the fall and winter months, but the sharp, early increases have roiled families and put pressure on children's hospitals.
- At the same time, Covid-19 wastewater levels and Covid-related hospitalizations have been on the upswing in recent weeks, data show, though both are slightly lower than they were at this time last year.
- Sales of cough and cold medications at U.S. retailers rose 35% in the four-week period ended Dec. 3 compared with the same period a year ago, according to a Jefferies analysis of Nielsen data. Spending on throat sprays and lozenges increased 56% in the period.
- Some versions of top-selling brands, especially pain-relief treatments designed for children, are sold out on Amazon.com Inc. and the online sites of CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Some consumers are taking to social media to report problems finding medications.
- Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
- Retailers and data-tracking firms say overall supplies remain healthy amid an increase in demand.
- Spokesmen for CVS and Walgreens said that their companies are working with manufacturers to ensure continued supply of medications. An Amazon spokeswoman said that the company is working to get sold-out items back in stock but that a number of cough and cold products is still available for fast delivery.
- Manufacturers of drugs in high demand on Wednesday said their plants were running nonstop.
- A spokesman for Procter & Gamble Co.
- Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
- , maker of NyQuil, DayQuil and Vicks, said the country is seeing an ''unprecedented level of respiratory need.''
- ''We are doing everything we can to ensure our products are available to the people who need them,'' he said.
- A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson , whose brands include pain relievers Tylenol and Motrin, said that while some products might be less readily available, the company isn't experiencing widespread shortages of children's Tylenol or Motrin.
- On Wednesday afternoon, the earliest delivery date on Amazon.com was Dec. 28 for a box of DayQuil and NyQuil cold and flu medication in liquid-capsule form. But the medication in syrup form was available by Sunday, while private-label options were available sooner.
- Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
- Children's Tylenol pain and fever reducer was largely unavailable on CVS's website, either listed as out of stock or with delivery estimates more than a week out. A number of cold-and-flu medications as well as children's pain and fever reducers were unavailable for delivery on the Walgreens website.
- The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which tracks shortages of medications, has gotten reports on shortages of the flu medication Tamiflu because of high demand, said Michael Ganio, ASHP's senior director of pharmacy practice and quality. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has a different method for determining shortages, doesn't have Tamiflu on its shortage list.
- Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
- The early timing of the flu season might be contributing to the emptying of some shelves, Dr. Ganio said, catching manufacturers that work to anticipate demand off guard. ''There's still inventory coming in,'' Dr. Ganio said. ''It's just a matter of being patient, something that is very difficult if you're a parent or a caregiver of a sick child.''
- A rapid rise in pediatric respiratory illnesses has resulted in shortages of some over-the-counter children's pain relievers at some retail locations, leading some parents to make extra stops for treatments, according to the Consumer Healthcare Product Association, a trade group.
- Some pockets of the country are seeing a steep rise in demand for a range of products, though supply is at normal levels nationally and regionally, according to data-tracking firm IRI.
- In several parts of Washington state and Oregon, for instance, sales volumes of cough, cold, flu and sinus medications doubled in the four weeks ended Dec. 4 compared with a year ago, and those places had more limited selections of medication available, according to IRI. Nationally, sales volumes rose 31% for the same period, IRI data show.
- The U.S. has also been grappling with a shortage of amoxicillin, a widely used antibiotic used to treat bacterial ear and sinus infections. The drug doesn't work for RSV or other viral infections. But doctors sometimes prescribe amoxicillin to RSV patients if they can't figure out the cause or rule out that a child also has a bacterial infection, said Rebecca Schein, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Michigan State University Health Care.
- ''It is one of the things we address all the time,'' said Dr. Schein. ''We know this child has RSV. Why are we using the amoxicillin? Do we need to use it?''
- Health officials and experts anticipate that gatherings during the holiday season could drive respiratory infections including flu and Covid-19 higher, and many have urged people to get vaccinated and take precautions ahead of gatherings with family and loved ones.
- Americans have spent nearly $12 billion on cough and cold medications in the past year, up nearly 30% from a year ago, according to Nielsen.
- Write to Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@wsj.com and Brianna Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com
- Our Reporting at Twitter
- ","longer_truncated_body_json":null,"longer_truncated_body_html":null,"truncated_body_text":"At dinner time on December 2 , I received a text from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX, founder of the Boring Company, founder of Neuralink, on most days the richest man in the world (possibly history), and, as of October, the owne\u2026","wordcount":1741,"postTags":[{"id":"6cda2dc0-f406-45bd-a51b-6fee073cb0a7","publication_id":260347,"name":"Font-six-caps","slug":"font-six-caps","hidden":true},{"id":"7f72d576-3c26-477f-90ad-cb032d25a6d7","publication_id":260347,"name":"Culture","slug":"culture","hidden":false},{"id":"4a629896-9a69-41e6-947f-c5a2f5942f6a","publication_id":260347,"name":"Politics","slug":"politics","hidden":false}],"comment_count":543,"publishedBylines":[{"id":2067309,"name":"Bari Weiss","previous_name":null,"photo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dcefd577-0400-48d6-96c8-cde128a32ebe_6000x4000.jpeg","bio":"Writer, editor and author of \"How to Fight Anti-Semitism.\"","profile_set_up_at":"2021-04-16T16:55:48.489Z","publicationUsers":[{"id":23750,"user_id":2067309,"publication_id":260347,"role":"admin","public":true,"is_primary":false,"publication":{"id":260347,"name":"The Free Press","subdomain":"bariweiss","custom_domain":"www.thefp.com","custom_domain_optional":false,"hero_text":"A new media company built on the ideals that were once the bedrock of American journalism.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9cb7f208-a15c-46a8-a040-7e7a2150def9_1280x1280.png","author_id":2067309,"theme_var_background_pop":"#E8B500","created_at":"2021-01-12T05:33:41.075Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"The Free Press","copyright":"Bari Weiss","founding_plan_name":"Founding Member","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false,"payments_state":"enabled"}}],"is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"reaction":null,"audio_items":[{"post_id":90732879,"voice_id":"en-US-JennyNeural","audio_url":"https://substack-video.s3.amazonaws.com/video_upload/post/90732879/tts/en-US-JennyNeural.mp3","type":"tts","status":"completed"}],"truncated_description":null,"hasCashtag":false,"truncated_body_html":null,"post_paywall_content_for_google":null,"cover_image_alt":null,"cover_image_caption":"Elon Musk during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility in February 2022. (Jim Watson via Getty Images)","html":"
- At dinner time on December 2 , I received a text from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX, founder of the Boring Company, founder of Neuralink, on most days the richest man in the world (possibly history), and, as of October, the owner of Twitter.
- Was I interested in looking at Twitter's archives, he asked. And how soon could I get to Twitter HQ?
- Two hours later, I was on a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco with my wife, Free Press writer Nellie Bowles, and our three-month-old baby.
- In the days that followed, we'--the journalist Matt Taibbi; investigative reporters connected to The Free Press, including Abigail Shrier, Michael Shellenberger and Leighton Woodhouse; plus Free Press reporters Suzy Weiss, Peter Savodnik, Olivia Reingold, and Isaac Grafstein'--camped out in a windowless, fluorescent-lit room at Twitter headquarters and began looking through the company's vast archive of internal communications.
- The only condition Musk imposed was that we first publish our findings on Twitter itself. (We did. Today, on The Free Press, we are publishing versions of those stories that aren't limited to 280-character chunks.)
- Twitter was founded in 2006. It is impossible to calculate how many emails and internal Slack messages and reports it has generated over the years. Looking for information about big subjects relevant to the public'--the question of whether Covid-19 started with a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, say, and how the platform suppressed or shaped the conversation around it'--is like trying to put together a 100,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
- We also had to work through lawyers using e-discovery tools'--software designed for lawyers to help them search huge amounts of information. So we entered search terms'--mostly dates and names of former Twitter executives'--and, over many hours, files would pop up. We then stitched together a chronology of events and communications.
- We did not selectively retrieve, or cherry-pick, files with an eye toward servicing a particular agenda. Our goal was simply to figure out what had happened at crucial moments in the history of the country and the company.
- What was his goal in asking us to exhume the so-called Twitter Files? And why did the man obsessed with outer space decide to spend $44 billion on a social media platform that has made most of us feel more claustrophobic?
- Those are much harder questions.
- To hear Musk tell it, his motivation is obvious: It's about saving the world.
- ''I'm not going to spend $44 billion to reinstate a satire blog,'' Musk said about the Babylon Bee, which had been banned from Twitter in March 2022. ''I did it because I was worried about the future of civilization,'' he told us late one night.
- As far as Musk sees things, ''birth rates are plummeting, the thought police are gaining power, and even having an opinion is enough to be shunned. We are trending in a bad direction.''
- He says he wants to transform Twitter from a social media platform distrusted and despised by at least half the country into one widely trusted by most Americans. To have it fulfill its highest mission: that of a digital town square where all ideas can be heard, and the best will win out.
- ''If there is one information source that breaks ranks, then I think it ultimately forces others not to have the same narrative,'' he said. ''If even one organization competes hard for the truth, others will have to follow.''
- To win back that trust, Musk figured it would require being honest about what had, until very recently, been going on at the company he had just bought: the suppression of disfavored users; the curtailing of certain political views; the censorship of stories like the Hunter Biden laptop; and the extent to which the government had tried to influence such decisions.
- ''We have a goal here, which is to clear the decks of any prior wrongdoing and move forward with a clean slate,'' Musk said in one of many conversations that took place over the course of a week. ''I'm sleeping at Twitter HQ for a reason. This is a code-red situation.'' (He put it even more forcefully on Twitter, where he said that the company was a ''crime scene.'') And so he has been sleeping there on-and-off, claiming a sofa. His 2-year-old son, named X, was almost always nearby.
- Musk, who is a South African native, analogized the work of cleaning-house at Twitter several times to a kind of Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But what looks to some like truth and reconciliation can look to others like revenge.
- At one point after midnight, as Musk showed off a closet of swag, including t-shirts left by the previous crew that said ''Stay Woke,'' he joked: ''The barbarians have crashed through the gates and are pillaging the merch!''
- Remember: After Musk made his offer to buy Twitter in April, he tried to get out of it in July, arguing that the company had not been honest about the percentage of fake users and bots on the site. But the company sued to force the deal, and he went ahead with it.
- Musk estimates that he paid at least twice what it was worth but that he had to ''chew down this hairball'''--which is to say, he had to buy Twitter.
- The price tag isn't his only grievance. There's also the fact that the company, to hear him tell it, wasn't really a functioning company at all.
- When Musk took over, he said, he found Twitter in disarray. Employees had unlimited vacation time and permanent work from home. The company had stopped doing performance reviews altogether, according to a long-time Twitter employee. ''As long as Twitter could just keep its head above water and be roughly cash-flow break-even, then that's all that they cared about,'' Musk said.
- Musk calls the Twitter he purchased a ''non-profit.'' Twitter, as it existed, wasn't pursuing net earnings but ''social influence,'' he said. ''This was fundamentally an activist organization.''
- Since he took the helm at Twitter, he has fired 80 percent of the staff. He has insisted that those not prepared to be ''extremely hardcore'' and work ''long hours at high intensity'' show themselves out. Several engineers I spoke to had been working 18-hour days for the past month. They looked like it.
- ''It's like if an aircraft was going in one direction and then suddenly pulled a U-turn and hit the afterburners in the other direction. That's what happened to Twitter,'' Musk said, making a vroom noise and laughing.
- In the two stories we are publishing today'--Twitter's Secret Blacklists and Why Twitter Really Banned Trump'--you'll see evidence of Musk's claim that, at Old Twitter, ''they were pressing the thumb hard in favor of the left. On the left, you could get away with death threats. On the right, you could get suspended for retweeting a Trump rally.''
- In one sense, that shouldn't be surprising. Twitter is in San Francisco. Its workforce is between 97 and 99 percent Democrat. If institutions are just people, well, of course Twitter would more readily censor conservatives.
- What's surprising is how thoroughly Twitter misled the public, insisting that they didn't suppress disfavored users and topics when they absolutely did.
- Musk promises that the future of Twitter will be a ''level playing field'' and that it will be ''consistent and transparent.'' He believes ''the algorithm should be open-source, so people can critique it.'' It sounds very good.
- But if the story of Old Twitter is about the biases and prejudices and power trips of the company's former overlords, the question is what Musk will now do with the powerful tools they created? What does it mean when the owner of Twitter tweets that his pronouns are ''Prosecute/Fauci''?
- Lots of people thought it was hilarious. Many others thought it was horrifying. It's certainly not apolitical. Doesn't that take us back to where we were before?
- Just yesterday, news broke of Twitter banning @ElonJet, an account with half a million followers that tracked the movements of his plane. Musk justified it by saying, ''Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,'' and noted that a stalker recently climbed onto a car carrying his young son. Another answer could simply be: I own Twitter. My platform, my rules.
- Much more seriously, Musk has business interests in China. Could he wind up suppressing information negative to China to please the CCP? Old Twitter was moderated by the morals and mores of one group. Now it is moderated by the morals and mores of one man.
- If I took anything away from my week at Twitter, it's about power. It's about how a handful of unelected people at a handful of private companies can influence public discourse profoundly.
- They can do it because of how good the tools they made are'--and how little the public understands them. They can influence the outcome of elections. And they do.
- Because all of those people tend to move and think as one, there is something refreshing about Musk barging into the Twitter Tower on Market Street and turning over the tables. But I'm not sure anyone should have that kind of power.
- At one point I asked Musk what he makes of this criticism'--that just as the old guard at Twitter had too much power, so does he.
- ''I'm open to ideas,'' he said.
- One additional note: For the past few days, conservative media'--and social media'--has thought this was the biggest story in the world. The legacy press'--and those Americans who rely on it'--barely seems to know it exists.
- It's hard to think of a story that more vividly exemplifies a problem we are trying to tackle here at The Free Press.
- We are living in a culture that's been suffering from a lack of open, transparent, informed, public debate. For people to have the courage to speak their minds, they have to know, at least, what's happening.
- Twitter's former leadership curtailed public debate; drew arbitrary lines about what's fake and what's real; and gaslit ordinary Americans. Musk says he won't do that. Perhaps we'll have to wait for the inevitable third owner to open up another set of archives. I'll drag my teenage daughter back onto a plane for it.
- Read Our Twitter Reporting:
- Twitter's Secret Blacklists
- Why Twitter Really Banned Trump
- And if you believe in honest, dogged, independent journalism please become a subscriber today:
- ","feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":"Elon Musk during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility in February 2022. (Jim Watson via Getty Images)","feature_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/h_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd923c562-2b28-4709-99b0-2cd7fcffa458_6048x4024.jpeg","comment_id":"90732879","comments":true,"featured":true,"visibility":"public","created_at":"2022-12-15T16:23:22.111Z","updated_at":"2022-12-15T16:23:22.111Z","published_at":"2022-12-15T16:23:22.111Z","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"url":"https://www.thefp.com/p/why-we-went-to-twitter","excerpt":"If the story of Twitter's former overlords is about their prejudices and power trips, the question now is what Elon Musk will do with the powerful tools they created.","reading_time":9,"access":true,"og_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/h_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd923c562-2b28-4709-99b0-2cd7fcffa458_6048x4024.jpeg","og_title":"Our Reporting at Twitter","og_description":"If the story of Twitter's former overlords is about their prejudices and power trips, the question now is what Elon Musk will do with the powerful tools they created.","twitter_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/h_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd923c562-2b28-4709-99b0-2cd7fcffa458_6048x4024.jpeg","twitter_title":"Our Reporting at Twitter","twitter_description":"If the story of Twitter's former overlords is about their prejudices and power trips, the question now is what Elon Musk will do with the powerful tools they created.","meta_title":"Our Reporting at Twitter","meta_description":"If the story of Twitter's former overlords is about their prejudices and power trips, the question now is what Elon Musk will do with the powerful tools they created.","email_subject":"Our Reporting at Twitter","tags":[{"url":"/t/font-six-caps","feature_image":null,"visibility":"private","description":"","id":"6cda2dc0-f406-45bd-a51b-6fee073cb0a7","publication_id":260347,"name":"Font-six-caps","slug":"font-six-caps","hidden":true},{"url":"/t/culture","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","description":"","id":"7f72d576-3c26-477f-90ad-cb032d25a6d7","publication_id":260347,"name":"Culture","slug":"culture","hidden":false},{"url":"/t/politics","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","description":"","id":"4a629896-9a69-41e6-947f-c5a2f5942f6a","publication_id":260347,"name":"Politics","slug":"politics","hidden":false}],"primary_tag":null,"authors":[{"id":2067309,"name":"Bari Weiss","previous_name":null,"photo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dcefd577-0400-48d6-96c8-cde128a32ebe_6000x4000.jpeg","bio":"Writer, editor and author of \"How to Fight Anti-Semitism.\"","profile_set_up_at":"2021-04-16T16:55:48.489Z","publicationUsers":[{"id":23750,"user_id":2067309,"publication_id":260347,"role":"admin","public":true,"is_primary":false,"publication":{"id":260347,"name":"The Free Press","subdomain":"bariweiss","custom_domain":"www.thefp.com","custom_domain_optional":false,"hero_text":"A new media company built on the ideals that were once the bedrock of American journalism.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9cb7f208-a15c-46a8-a040-7e7a2150def9_1280x1280.png","author_id":2067309,"theme_var_background_pop":"#E8B500","created_at":"2021-01-12T05:33:41.075Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"The Free Press","copyright":"Bari Weiss","founding_plan_name":"Founding Member","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false,"payments_state":"enabled"}}],"is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null,"profile_image":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dcefd577-0400-48d6-96c8-cde128a32ebe_6000x4000.jpeg","visibility":"public","slug":"2067309-bari-weiss","url":"https://substack.com/profile/2067309-bari-weiss"}],"primary_author":{"id":2067309,"name":"Bari Weiss","previous_name":null,"photo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dcefd577-0400-48d6-96c8-cde128a32ebe_6000x4000.jpeg","bio":"Writer, editor and author of \"How to Fight Anti-Semitism.\"","profile_set_up_at":"2021-04-16T16:55:48.489Z","publicationUsers":[{"id":23750,"user_id":2067309,"publication_id":260347,"role":"admin","public":true,"is_primary":false,"publication":{"id":260347,"name":"The Free Press","subdomain":"bariweiss","custom_domain":"www.thefp.com","custom_domain_optional":false,"hero_text":"A new media company built on the ideals that were once the bedrock of American journalism.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9cb7f208-a15c-46a8-a040-7e7a2150def9_1280x1280.png","author_id":2067309,"theme_var_background_pop":"#E8B500","created_at":"2021-01-12T05:33:41.075Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"The Free Press","copyright":"Bari Weiss","founding_plan_name":"Founding Member","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false,"payments_state":"enabled"}}],"is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null,"profile_image":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dcefd577-0400-48d6-96c8-cde128a32ebe_6000x4000.jpeg","visibility":"public","slug":"2067309-bari-weiss","url":"https://substack.com/profile/2067309-bari-weiss"},"tiers":null,"reaction_count":1149},"language":"en","siteConfigs":{"score_upsell_email":"control","first_chat_email_enabled":true,"free_signup_confirmation_behavior":"with_email_validation","reader-onboarding-promoted-pub":737237,"pub_creation_captcha_behavior":"risky_pubs","continue_support_cta_emails_15d_after_expiry":false,"pub_update_opennode_api_key":false,"selection_sharing":"NONE","guest_posts_revamp":"NONE","hide_book_a_meeting_button":false,"enable_group_enterprise_offers":false,"reader_post_viewer_enabled":true,"chat_invite_template_enabled":true,"no_contest_charge_disputes":false,"recommendations_announcement_url":"https://on.substack.com/p/recommendations","comp_expiry_email_new_copy":"NONE","free_unlock_required":false,"traffic_rule_check_enabled":false,"amp_emails_enabled":false,"minimum_ios_version":null,"image_deep_link_enabled":false,"bitcoin_enabled":false,"public_podcast_rss_feed_only_free_visible":false,"show_entire_square_image":false,"hide_subscriber_count":true,"publication_author_display_override":"","reader_onboarding_after_subscription_flow":"control","generate_pdf_tax_report":false,"writer_referral":true,"include_pdf_invoice":false,"hide_pub_from_subscription_recommendation":false,"enable_prev_next_post_link":true,"tax_integration_enabled":false,"use_featured_pub_recommendations":false,"meetings_v1":false,"custom_target_origin":"","exempt_from_gtm_filter":false,"enable_new_email_footer":true,"boost_optin_modal_enabled":true,"trending_posts_enabled":true,"use_v2_twitter_card":true,"video_posts_enabled":true,"pub_tts_override":"default","disable_monthly_subscriptions":false,"skip_welcome_email":false,"chat_reader_thread_notification_default":false,"scheduled_pinned_posts":true,"disable_redirect_outbound_utm_params":false,"reader_gift_referrals_enabled":true,"ios_pause_email_default":false,"auto_paywall_archives":true,"dont_show_guest_byline":true,"like_comments_enabled":true,"extended_podcast_episode_metadata":false,"use_richer_html_for_editing_podcast_description":false,"email_ufi_enabled":true,"activity_feed_enabled":false,"meetings_embed_publication_name":false,"no_auto_renewal_notice":true,"minimum_android_version":null,"suggestion_upsell_button":"control","android_chat":false,"welcome_screen_blurb_override":"","show_email_app_install_button":true,"like_posts_enabled":true,"email_header_footer":"original_flow","history_bucket_unit":"month","twitter_player_card_enabled":true,"audio_edu_modal":false,"history_max_iterations":10,"history_paging_enabled":true,"generated_database_maintenance_mode":false,"chat_photo_replies_default":true,"chat_diagnostic_viewer":false,"generate_twitter_card_with_lamda":false,"max_image_upload_mb":32,"extract_stripe_receipt_url":false,"post_recipients_batch_limit":5000,"bulk_subscribe_upsell_email":"control","zendesk_automation_cancellations":true,"trending_sidebar":false,"threads_suggested_ios_version":null,"precancellation_free_month":"control","threads_minimum_ios_version":812,"hide_podcast_email_setup_link":true,"subscribe_captcha_behavior":"default","publication_ban_sample_rate":0,"allow_moderation_sampling_mode":false,"allow_filtering_moderation_reasons":false,"photo_dna_enabled":false,"round_square_images":false,"reader_referrals_feature_enabled":false,"continue_support_cta_in_newsletter_emails":false,"end_of_post_publication_recommendation":"control","custom_publication_theme":true,"show_writer_referral_box":false,"allow_document_freeze":true,"podcast_main_feed_is_firehose":false,"bundles_delay_minutes":"NONE","enable_simple_post_composer":false,"substack_mentions":true,"fullstory_enabled":true,"chat_reply_poll_interval":3,"podcast_bylines":true,"chat_marketing_launched":true,"chat_beta_access":true,"enable_reader_marketing_page":false,"post_tags":true,"image_gallery":true,"latex_enabled":false,"pub_launch_checklist":true,"twitter_pubs_try_chat":true,"optimize_recommended_publications":"experiment","conversion_rate_v2":"control","subscribe_no_cc_pledge_screen":"NONE","enable_new_discover_page":true,"separate_subscribe_plan_selection":"experiment","cross_post_notification_threshold":1000,"gift_referrals_allow_reups":true,"publisher_banner":"","should_send_payment_pledge_emails":false,"welcome_page_copy":"experiment","enable_group_details_page":false,"tweet_subscribe_redirect":"control","guest_byline_autocomplete":true,"enable_pledges":false,"seo_tier_override":"NONE","welcome_page_learn_more_copy":"experiment","cancellation_flow_experiment":"experiment","publisher_api_enabled":false},"experimentFeatures":{"send_post_failure_cancellation_email":null,"precancellation_free_month":null,"bundles_delay_minutes":"control","cancellation_flow_experiment":null,"welcome_page_learn_more_copy":"read_more","fast_writer_signup_flow":"treatment","autosubscribe_from_paywall":"treatment","score_upsell_email_v2":null,"add_paid_step_to_launch_checklist":"control","enable_reader_marketing_page":"treatment","mobile_pub_dashboard_order":"treatment","subscribe_prompt_v5":"control","limited_time_bundle_offer":"treatment"},"experimentExposures":{"mobile_pub_dashboard_order":"treatment"},"frameStylesheetPrefix":":root{--color_theme_bg_pop:#7671ec;--background_pop:#7671ec;--cover_bg_color:#FFFFFF;--background_pop_darken:#605be9;--print_on_pop:#ffffff;--color_theme_bg_pop_darken:#605be9;--color_theme_print_on_pop:#ffffff;--border_subtle:rgba(204, 204, 204, 0.5);--background_subtle:rgba(234, 234, 252, 0.4);--print_pop:#7671ec;--color_theme_accent:#7671ec;--cover_print_primary:#404040;--cover_print_secondary:#757575;--cover_border_color:#7671ec;--font_family_headings_preset:Lora,sans-serif;--font_weight_headings_preset:600;--font_preset_heading:fancy_serif;--web_bg_color:#ffffff;--background_contrast_1:#f7f7f7;--color_theme_bg_contrast_1:#f7f7f7;--background_contrast_2:#ebebeb;--color_theme_bg_contrast_2:#ebebeb;--background_contrast_3:#d6d6d6;--color_theme_bg_contrast_3:#d6d6d6;--background_contrast_4:#b8b8b8;--color_theme_bg_contrast_4:#b8b8b8;--background_contrast_5:#9a9a9a;--color_theme_bg_contrast_5:#9a9a9a;--background_contrast_pop:rgba(118, 113, 236, 0.4);--color_theme_bg_contrast_pop:rgba(118, 113, 236, 0.4);--input_background:#ffffff;--cover_input_background:#ffffff;--tooltip_background:#191919;--web_bg_color_h:0;--web_bg_color_s:0%;--web_bg_color_l:100%;--print_on_web_bg_color:#404040;--print_secondary_on_web_bg_color:#8c8c8c;--selected_comment_background_color:#fdf9f3;--background_pop_rgb:118, 113, 236;--color_theme_bg_pop_rgb:118, 113, 236;--color_theme_accent_rgb:118, 113, 236;}","frameStylesheets":["https://substackcdn.com/theme/main.css?v=8a9328e956a261ec068b1648b7639b78","https://substackcdn.com/min/customPublicationTheme.css?v=1d759-1851d0ea850"],"isMeetingsActive":false}
- Arctic Blast To Freeze Texas Next Week Will Bring Fresh Test To Power Grid | ZeroHedge
- Texas appears to be in the crosshairs of a massive Arctic blast scheduled for next week. Meteorologists warn that temperatures could dive to extremes, while energy traders are concerned about a potential wave of freeze-offs across the state that could affect the flow of natural gas.
- Judah Cohen, head of seasonal forecasting at AER, a Verisk company, told Axios the cold blast slated for around the Christmas holiday could be one of the most extreme cold air masses to pour into the southern part of the country in years. Computer model data shows temperatures could dive 30 degrees below average by Dec. 23.
- Cohen warned the upcoming cold blast could be on par with the February 2021 episode when an Arctic blast triggered a grid failure across Texas.
- Another, more severe weather model was tweeted by meteorologist Ryan Maue who warned:
- "Next Thursday, dangerously cold air extends from Canada to Texas up to 58°F below normal."
- AccuWeather forecasted the cold air could "challenge records that have stood since the 1980s from the northern Rockies to the Southeast, as well as stress energy grids, in the run-up to the Christmas holiday."
- Houston-based NatGas research firm Criterion Research has been telling clients all week about the potential for upcoming freeze-offs.
- Criterion said, "Midland, Texas, will post average temperatures below freezing for multiple days, with nightly lows of 20 degrees and daily highs just above the freeze line." They said in similar instances, freeze-offs have occurred, curtailing production.
- The research firm said ERCOT's guidance for next week "is shaping up to be a big showing, with the ISO showing total load rising to 53 GW on Thursday (12/22). However, the demand shot is not quite as high as peak days during last winter and well off of summer highs for the ISO."
- ERCOT's guidance for next week is shaping up to be a big showing, with the ISO forecasting total load rising to 53 GW on Thursday (12/22). #natgas #ongt #power #enelyst pic.twitter.com/E7GOTlyUJ0
- '-- Criterion Research (@PipelineFlows) December 15, 2022They noted ERCOT's fossil fuel power generation sources would rise next week to 30 GW. Any production freeze-off could affect energy flows to power plants.
- "One concern that could lead to tightness for natural gas supply & demand is the rising risk of freeze-offs in the Southern US," Criterion said.
- Next week's forecast for Central US and Texas sent natural gas futures soaring more than 7.5% today.
- And as a reminder, Texas largely relies on NatGas for power generation. What could possibly go wrong?
- California lowers solar energy incentives for homeowners
- Save A Lot Solar contractors install LG Electronics solar panels on a home in Hayward, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022.
- David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
- The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday passed a proposal that will reduce compensation provided to households for the surplus electricity their rooftop solar panels contribute to the electric grid.
- Utilities and consumer groups have argued the incentive payments have unfairly favored wealthier consumers and harmed poor and low-income households. But solar companies and renewable advocates have said that lowering the compensation would slow solar installations and hinder the state's goals to address climate change.
- The proposal, which California utility regulators unveiled last month, will change a net metering policy by paying solar owners for extra power at a lower rate, which is determined by the cost the utility would need to spend to purchase clean power from an alternative source. The solar industry has said the plan would amount to a 75% cut in average payment rates to customers.
- Today's unanimous vote by the five-member commission was monitored across the country, since California is widely viewed as a leader in the renewable energy buildout. The impact of today's decision will likely extend beyond the state and have implications for the solar industry nationwide, particularly companies in the residential solar space like Sunrun , SunPower , Sunnova , and Tesla .
- More than 1.5 million homes, businesses and other utility customers in California have rooftop solar panels. The utilities commission estimates that these installations can collectively produce 12 gigawatts of electricity.
- The proposal would have no impact on existing rooftop solar customers and would maintain their current compensation rates, and would also encourage consumers to install batteries with their solar panels, the commission said.
- Affordable Clean Energy For All, a nonprofit funded by California's utilities, has argued that the rooftop solar program is outdated and that utilities have to pass along the costs of subsidies, creating higher bills for millions of customers who don't install solar, including those least able to pay for electricity costs.
- However, solar companies have argued that the existing net metering system is necessary to spur people to choose rooftop solar.
- The changes to the state's solar incentive program could cut California's solar market in half by 2024, according to a report released earlier this year from energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.
- "This misguided decision, which undervalues solar's numerous benefits for all Californians, will dim the lights on the growth of solar in the Golden State," said Laura Deehan, state director for Environment California, following the vote.
- Roger Lin, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity's energy justice program, said in a statement that the commission "has taken a step backward by widening the divide between those who can afford solar and those who can't."
- "It's an affront to low-income communities who are hit by the climate crisis first and worst, and we'll do everything we can to convince the commission to fix the deep flaws in its proposal," Lin said.
- California, which is grappling with wildfires and drought fueled by climate change, has a goal to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.
- JFK secret files: National Archives releases records on President John F. Kennedy's assassination
- President John F. Kennedy in a convertible limousine in Dallas. Photo: Getty Images
- The National Archives on Thursday released thousands of secret documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- Driving the news: In a memo, President Biden authorized more than 70% of the roughly 16,000 remaining files on JFK's death to "now be released in full." The decision came after a "comprehensive effort to review" the files over the last year, Biden stated.
- Biden said all documents on JFK's assassination should be shared with the public "except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise.""The profound national tragedy of President Kennedy's assassination continues to resonate in American history and in the memories of so many Americans who were alive on that terrible day," the memo stated.What they're saying: "President Biden believes all information related to President Kennedy's assassination should be released to the greatest extent possible, consistent with again, national security," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.
- She said Biden has called for the release of all redacted information when "the basis for the continued restriction of that information no longer outweighs the public interest."Catch up quick: Last year, Biden postponed the release of the trove of documents, citing the pandemic.
- At the time, Biden asked the National Archives to conduct a one-year review of the documents before they were released. That one-year deadline expired Thursday.In October, the Mary Ferrell Foundation sued the Biden administration to force the records' release. Worth noting: More than 70% of voters wanted Biden to release the secret records of Kennedy's assassination, according to a poll '-- done by the Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi, a JFK assassination expert.
- Remembering JFK's assassination 54 years later
- Biden, National Archives sued over unreleased JFK assassination records
- Damage Averted: Estimating the Effects of Covid-19 Vaccines on Hospitalizations, Mortality and Costs in Canada | C.D. Howe Institute | Canada Economy News | Canadian Government Policy
- The Study In BriefCOVID-19 vaccines, along with the emergence of less deadly variants of the disease, provided a route out of rotating lockdowns and ongoing uncertainty. Canada rapidly achieved some of the highest vaccination rates in the world following significant efforts to quickly develop, evaluate, procure, distribute and administer COVID-19 vaccines. As of Oct. 9, 2022, 80.3 percent of Canadians had completed a primary series of a vaccine (two doses) and half (49.6) percent had received at least one additional dose. Despite this success, there has been relatively little research evaluating the public health and economic effects associated with these mass vaccination efforts. This Commentary aims to address this gap by providing estimates of the cases, hospitalizations and deaths prevented by vaccination as well as the economic costs that could have occurred without vaccines.
- Overall, our analysis shows vaccines were highly effective at reducing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths '' estimates suggest 21 percent fewer cases, 37 percent fewer hospitalizations and 34,900 fewer deaths (from January 2021 to May 2022). The direct cost of vaccine administration compared to the savings associated with averting missed work and treatment costs due to illness indicates an estimated net cost/benefit of ''$0.4 billion to $2.1 billion. Using the statistical value of life, the estimated lives saved are valued at an additional $27.6 billion. In addition, vaccination allowed for a reduction in many preventative public health measures that disrupted the social and economic lives of Canadians. We model the macroeconomic effect of delayed access to vaccines and the continuation of public health restrictions. The results suggest that a six-month delay would have led to economic losses equivalent to about 12.5 percent of GDP, or about $156 billion in economic activity in 2021.
- Vaccines were clearly economically and socially beneficial. The success of the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign contains valuable insights for policy makers and health system administrators.
- Lockdowns were necessary to disrupt the spread of COVID-19 prior to vaccination, providing another pathway for reducing transmission. However, they had significant costs for the economy and the population's mental health. Less disruptive public health interventions like recommending masks, physical distancing and increased sanitation are less costly. When lockdowns are necessary, implementing targeted restrictions by age group is less economically costly than uniform restrictions.The speed of development and distribution of not just one but many different vaccines for COVID-19 is truly an achievement. Rather than an average of more than 18 months from Health Canada approval to listing on public plans, COVID-19 vaccines took less than a year. Plus, regulatory changes allowed for ongoing submission of new clinical data and regulatory processes to occur in parallel. There are lessons to be learned about parallel regulatory steps, price negotiations and reducing the time-to-patient for innovative medical products.The success of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns provides insights for other vaccination efforts, particularly for the working-age population. As policies adapt to the changing nature of COVID-19, there may be opportunities to link regular boosters with broader public health immunization and prevention efforts.Since COVID-19 vaccines show waning immunity over time, it is important to continue efforts to increase uptake of booster doses. The infectiousness of the Omicron variants means that COVID-19 will likely become endemic over time and regular booster doses will be required to maintain sufficient levels of population immunity. The authors thank Jeremy Kronick, Charles DeLand, William Robson, Fred Horne and anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft. The authors retain responsibility for any errors and the views expressed.
- IntroductionTo date, the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada has infected more than four million people and caused more than 46,000 deaths (as of Oct. 28, 2022).1
- More than 24.3 million Canadians (80.3 percent) have completed the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccination, and almost half of those have received at least one additional booster shot. Still, the pandemic and the associated restrictions on economic and social activities have massively disrupted the lives of Canadians. The arrival of vaccines provided a path to a new normalcy and enabled many social and economic activities to resume. Yet, despite widespread vaccination against COVID-19 in Canada, there is limited analysis quantifying its public health and economic effects.
- This Commentary provides analysis to estimate the cases, hospitalizations and deaths averted by COVID-19 vaccination and its associated economic effects. First, we review the existing research on the pandemic's effects and on public health restrictions and vaccination in Canada. Next, using COVID-19 case and weekly vaccination data, we model the number of cases that would have occurred in the absence of vaccination based on the relative number of cases between the unvaccinated and vaccine-eligible age groups. A similar statistical method is applied to estimate averted hospitalizations and deaths.
- The following section provides a cost-benefit analysis of the direct effects of COVID-19 vaccines and a discussion of their indirect effects. The final section discusses the policy implications of our analysis.
- Overall, the results show that vaccinations reduced the number of Canadian COVID-19 cases by about 21 percent and the number of hospitalizations by about 37 percent from the beginning of 2021 to May 2022. Furthermore, for the population over 50 years old, who are most at risk of severe outcomes from infection, vaccination reduced mortality by an estimated 63 percent '' equivalent to 34,900 lives saved. In addition, about 65,000 cases of long COVID have been averted by vaccination.
- Meanwhile, vaccine procurement and administration costs were some $3.7 billion, while the direct savings associated with averted cases and hospitalizations were an estimated $3.3 billion to $5.8 billion, resulting in a net cost-benefit estimate of -$0.4 billion to $2.1 billion, without considering the benefits of saved lives. The statistical value of reduced mortality2 is some $27.6 billion, dwarfing the costs of the vaccines and savings associated with averting more minor cases.
- The indirect effects of vaccination are complex and interrelated with the effects of the pandemic and public health restrictions to control its spread. Ongoing mutations of the virus and adaptation of public health policies add to the complexity. While comprehensive analysis of the indirect effects of vaccination public health policies add to the complexity. While comprehensive analysis of the indirect effects of vaccination is beyond the scope of this study, we model the macroeconomic effect of delayed access to vaccines with different lockdown strategies (uniform or differentiated by age group). The results indicate that a six-month delay in vaccination and continuation of public health restrictions would have resulted in economic losses equivalent to about 12.5 percent of GDP. In 2021, this would have been about $156 billion in economic activity.
- Furthermore, the arrival of vaccines coincided with a significant reduction in anxiety and depression in the population. The removal of public health restrictions and resumption of more regular economic activities is certainly linked to vaccination. While this study does not include these indirect effects in the cost-benefit analysis of the public health impact of vaccinations on the broader economy, they represent large and significant positive impacts.
- Overall, the results show that vaccination was highly beneficial to population health and also cost-effective from an economic perspective. The rapid development, approval, procurement and distribution of vaccines was a success made possible because of proactive changes to regulatory and procurement processes that prioritized rapid access. This achievement provides insights about how to reform long-term regulatory processes to reduce delays in accessing new medical innovations. Furthermore, the wide success of the public health vaccination programs could provide insights for improving access to vaccinations for vulnerable populations and broader population immunization programs. For both managing the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and for preparing governments for future infectious disease emergencies, it is important to understand the different effects of various public health policies and vaccination on population health and mortality, as well as on the economy.
- Impact of Covid-19 Vaccinations on Public Health and Social and Economic LifeThe COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented impacts on individuals and society. It not only continues to threaten public health, but also disrupts the social and economic lives of Canadians, in particular in the way they interact, learn, work and consume.
- In the past two-and-half years, the Canadian economy experienced hundreds of billions of dollars in lost economic activity, directly or indirectly caused by the pandemic, in terms of border closures, healthcare expenditures, job losses and worsened mental health. Though the labour market and economy have in many ways recovered, the negative economic effects, particularly during the outset of the pandemic, were severe. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant social impact. In 2020, Canadians reported the lowest levels of life satisfaction since 2003 (Statistics Canada 2020). The life expectancy also went down by 0.6 years, the largest decline in decades.
- Beginning in March 2020, Canada's federal and provincial governments enacted various policies to contain the spread of the virus. Such policies included lockdowns: closing borders, non-essential businesses, non-essential health services, child-care services and schools. International travel was banned for a while,3 and people were asked to work from home. Other non-pharmaceutical interventions included mask mandates and social distancing orders, stay-at-home orders, and restrictions on public and private social gatherings. Compared to other G10 countries, people in Canada experienced some of the most restrictive public health measures (Razak et al. 2022). Such health measures depend on public cooperation and aim to protect the Canadian hospital system from being overwhelmed. Except for Japan among such nations, Canada had the lowest rates for COVID-19-related death per capita and excess mortality (Razak et al. 2022).4
- Evaluating the social, economic and health impacts of lockdowns and other public health measures is complicated. In the literature, many scholars found lockdowns to be effective in reducing COVID-19 cases and containing the spread of the virus (Friedson et al. 2020, Dave et al. 2021, Kharroubi and Saleh 2020, Poeschl and Larsen 2021). However, the impact of lockdowns on mortality is less certain. Allen (2021) examined 80 COVID-19 studies and concluded that lockdowns have had, at best, a marginal effect on the number of COVID-19 deaths. He argued, ''Lockdown jurisdictions were not able to prevent non-compliance, and non-lockdown jurisdictions benefited from voluntary changes in behavior that mimicked lockdowns.'' Herby, Jonung and Hanke (2022) further studied the effects of lockdowns on COVID-19 mortality rates. After systematically reviewing 18,590 studies, they identified 24 qualified empirical studies for meta-analysis. They then found that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. As a result, they concluded that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic.
- In terms of the indirect health impact of lockdowns, findings from Santabrbara et al. (2021) suggest that the global rates of anxiety more than tripled during the pandemic. Among 1,800 surveyed Canadians, nearly half reported high anxiety or depression levels due to lockdowns (Mental Health Research Canada 2020, 2021). Moreover, Plett, Pechlivanoglou and Coyte (2022) estimated a positive relationship between stay-at-home orders and anxiety symptom severity. Such anxiety was mainly driven by socio-demographic and socioeconomic factors such as fear of infection, financial and employment insecurity, housing instability and inability to access social support.
- Between March and April 2020, lockdowns contributed to a 10.9-percent reduction in monthly GDP growth (Statistics Canada, June 2022). The public-health measures also caused temporary and permanent job losses, business bankruptcies, school closures, disruptions to healthcare delivery, supply-chain difficulties, and disturbed the flow of imports and exports in early 2020 (Statistics Canada 2020). Both business and consumer confidence indexes decreased to record-low levels compared to pre-COVID.5
- In order to mitigate the negative effects of lockdowns, Canadian governments provided many financial supports for employees and businesses. For example, the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit was given to employees whose work was directly affected by COVID-19, while businesses were able to access wage subsidies, rent support and loan-payment deferrals.6 As businesses adapted over time and vaccines started to become available in December 2020, most sectors gradually recovered. Employment rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels in November 2021. Real GDP also grew 4.6 percent in 2021, compared to a 5.2-percent decline in 2020.7
- In order to combat the spread of the virus, Canada approved six vaccines in 2020 and 2021, aiming to reach herd immunity. Vaccinating the majority of Canadians can help reduce infections, hospitalizations and deaths while also lowering economic and social costs. As of Oct. 9, 2022, 80.3 percent of Canadians had completed a primary series of a vaccine (two doses) and half (49.6 percent) had received at least one additional dose.8 Compared to the US, Japan, UK, France and five other European countries, Canada at the time had the highest proportion of the population receiving two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine (Razak et al. 2022). Among those nations, Canada also had the second lowest (except Japan) cumulative per-capita rate of COVID-19 cases and COVID-19-related deaths.
- Many scholars have studied the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. They have unanimously agreed upon their effectiveness in reducing cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, which range from 46.1 to 95.3, 63.5 to 97.5, and 69.3 to 96.7 percent, respectively, seven days or longer after the second dose (Haas et al. 2021, Bajema et al. 2021, Dagan et al. 2021, Griffin et al. 2021, Moghadas et al. 2021, Zaqouta et al. 2021). Bajema et al. (2021) found that mRNA vaccines remained highly effective during the spread of the Delta variant. For their part, Suthar et al. (2022) found that higher vaccination coverage rates were associated with reduced mortality and incidence rates from the Alpha and Delta variants.9 The initial vaccines were less effective at preventing infection from the Omicron variant. However, booster doses significantly increased immunity: 62.4 percent to 73.9 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection after two to four weeks and declining to as low as 39.6 percent after 10 weeks, depending on the type of vaccine (Andrews et al. 2022).
- In Ontario, meanwhile, Vilches et al. (2021) projected a 31.5-percent and 31.9-percent reduction in deaths thanks to Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, respectively. Barro (2022) observed a greater impact, indicating that a 14.2 percent increase in the vaccination rate can lower the death rate by 40.6 percent..
- Vaccinations reduced infections, hospitalizations and deaths among residents and healthcare workers in Ontario's long-term care (LTC) homes (Brown et al. 2021). Relative to unvaccinated healthcare workers and residents, COVID-19 infections decreased by 80 percent and 90 percent, respectively. The vaccination of LTC residents was estimated to prevent 2,079 cases, 249 hospitalizations and 615 deaths in Ontario.10 Globally, COVID-19 vaccinations saved an estimated 14.4 million lives in 185 countries and territories during the first year of vaccination (Watson et al. 2022).11
- COVID-19 vaccines not only reduce morbidity, hospitalizations and mortality, but also have secondary health impacts, reducing serious complications from COVID-19 infections.12 Vaccines can also alleviate stress and anxiety caused by the threat of infection and lockdowns. According to Agrawal et al. (2021), vaccination was associated with a 28 percent reduction of negative mental health symptoms.
- Apart from improving health outcomes, vaccinations also have a positive economic impact. Averted health and societal costs from vaccinations are worth billions of dollars.13 Barro (2022) estimated the economic cost of vaccinations to save one life during COVID-19. He found that 248 COVID-19 vaccination doses, equivalent to US$55,000, resulted in one life saved, far below the typical several million-dollar estimate of the value of a statistical life. The economic benefits of vaccines also include productivity gains, lessening the impact of illness on family, cost-effective preparedness for outbreaks and incentivizing investment on vaccine development (Rodrigues and Plotkin 2020). Furthermore, vaccination programs can enable equal access, strengthen health and social care infrastructure, improve life expectancy and empower vulnerable women (Rodrigues and Plotkin 2020).
- Most importantly, vaccination can alleviate the need for lockdowns and restrictive health measures. As we have witnessed since mass vaccination began '' even with significant bumps along the way, e.g. Omicron '' non-essential businesses reopened, shopping malls were crowded with consumers, cultural festivals and activities returned, social ties restored, unemployment rates decreased and routine medical procedures resumed. The economic and social lives of Canadians gradually recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Even though we continue to live with COVID-19 under the more transmissible Omicron variant, the threat of hospitalizations and deaths is less severe compared to previous variants.
- However, the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines wanes over time. Cohn et al. (2022) compared the three types of vaccines and found that their overall protection against COVID-19 infection decreased from 89.2 percent in March 2021 to 13.1 percent just six months later. The decline was largest for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, followed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Barro (2022) also found that the positive effects of vaccinations on deaths, hospitalizations and cases diminished over time, especially during the emergence of the Omicron variant. One explanation is that the current vaccines are less effective against new forms of the virus (Barro 2022). Goldberg et al. (2021) and Cohn et al. (2022) echo this argument and suggest that vaccines are less effective in preventing Delta-related infections. Nevertheless, the vaccines are still effective against hospitalizations and deaths (Cohn et al. 2022, Vogel and Duong 2021).
- As the virus evolves over time, the concern is around booster vaccines. From the literature, we know that the effectiveness of vaccines wanes in about six months. If new variants arise and population immunity diminishes, the lifesaving impact of vaccinations will fade. Canada is encouraging everyone who is eligible, but especially the elderly and other vulnerable groups, to take booster doses. Currently, about 56 percent of Canadians aged 12 and over have received the first booster dose. In terms of the second and third boosters, health experts have divided opinions. Some think that vaccines should focus on averted deaths, severe diseases and hospitalizations instead of infections in general. Others argue that it is better and more cost efficient to develop new variant-specific vaccines and more ethical to distribute surplus vaccines to other countries that still experience large numbers of COVID-related deaths (Duong and Vogel 2022). Both arguments are plausible since the pandemic is no longer a public health emergency in Canada, yet continues to be endemic.
- Estimating the Vaccination Impact on COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations and MortalityThe effects of COVID-19, public health regulations to control it and vaccination efforts have all had complex and interrelated effects on the health of Canadians and the Canadian economy. Research mentioned in the previous section has used many different statistical methods and models to estimate the effects of COVID-19, related restrictions and vaccines. Some of these are forward-looking theoretical models of the economy and informed by the epidemiology of COVID-19, which were useful early in the pandemic to evaluate the potential effects of different lockdown strategies and different scenarios for combatting the spread of the virus (for example, Kronick and Jenkins 2021). This kind of modelling approach is most useful for forward-looking insights: what might happen, and if it does, what will the effects be?
- Other modelling approaches use data generated throughout the pandemic to estimate the impacts and effectiveness of various interventions, assess the ongoing situation and retrospectively test different scenarios: what happened, what is happening, what would have happened if we did something different? (Tan et al. 2022). (See online Appendix for additional information on different modelling approaches used in published COVID-19 research.)
- To assess the public-health effects of vaccination in Canada, we replicate and adapt the methods used by Tan et al. (2022). To estimate the number of averted cases, hospitalizations and deaths, we use publicly available weekly case-level data and counts of vaccination administrations (Public Health Agency of Canada 2022). Using Quasi-Poisson regressions, we estimated the number of COVID-19 cases by age group relative to a control group (0-19 years of age) during the pre-vaccination period (March 2020 to December 2020).14 The 0-19 age group was chosen as a control group due to the delay in its vaccine eligibility and lower rates of vaccination compared to older age groups. Comparing the predicted values to the actual (or modelled) case numbers provides an estimate of cases averted by vaccination. A similar procedure was used to estimate the number of hospitalizations and deaths averted by vaccination.
- To assess the model, we performed various sensitivity checks. First, we re-estimated the model over the entire period by including variables for vaccination rates in both the control and dependent age groups. To simulate the scenario without vaccination, we predicted the number of COVID-19 cases (dependent variable), setting vaccination rates to zero for the target age group. In addition, we tested an expanded model including fixed effects for the circulating variant of COVID-19. For more information about the methods, analysis and data, see the online Appendix.
- Overall, the estimated number of COVID-19 cases matches well with the actual case numbers until the end of 2021, where estimated cases and modelled cases diverge: the modelled case numbers are higher than confirmed case data would suggest. There are a number of potential explanations for this, but the most likely is a change in testing policy. Omicron overwhelmed clinical testing capacity in many regions, and provinces and territories reduced access to clinical testing, instead relying on other indicators (Statistics Canada 2022). In addition, the wide availability of rapid test kits for consumers likely resulted in a significant decline in the proportion of COVID-19 cases being officially reported to public health.
- To account for this series break in reporting, we relied on research results using wastewater data to assess the concentration of COVID-19 in samples from different sites across the country (Nourbakhshet al. 2022). In cities, the number of cases estimated using wastewater data is much higher than clinically reported in January 2022 and again from April 2022 to May 2022 (Public Health Agency of Canada 2022). The ratio between clinical and wastewater estimates varies substantially across locations and across time, more closely matching clinical estimates when case numbers are low. When clinical cases of Omicron began to decline, wastewater estimates continued to increase in most locations, resulting in ratios between clinical and wastewater estimates ranging from 1:1.2
- in Montreal to more than 1:6 in Vancouver by mid-January (Public Health Agency of Canada 2022).15To account for the reduction in testing and underestimated COVID-19 cases, we incorporate an adjustment factor for case data used to calculate modelled and simulated case estimates for 2022.16
- Overall, the results show that vaccinations were associated with reducing the total number of Canadian COVID-19 cases by about 21 percent and the number of hospitalizations by about 37 percent from the beginning of 2021 to May 2022. Furthermore, for the population more than 50 years of age, who are most at risk of severe outcomes from infection, vaccination reduced mortality by an estimated 63 percent '' equivalent to 34,900 lives saved (Figure 1). Vaccination was generally more effective for preventing infection for younger age groups than for older ones. It prevented more than a third of cases for the population age 20 to 29 and about a fifth for the population 30 to 49. Comparatively, about one in 10 cases in the population 60 to 79 were prevented by vaccination (Figure 2). Vaccination was most effective for preventing hospitalization of people more than 70 years of age (an estimated 38-percent reduction for the population 70 to 79 and a 45-percent reduction for the population more than 80), but was also quite effective for the younger population, preventing about 30 percent of hospitalizations in the non-senior population (Figure 3).
- Similarly, vaccine effectiveness for preventing mortality increases with population age. Since older people were more likely to experience severe outcomes from COVID-19, the benefit of
- vaccination is proportionally larger than for younger people who are at lower risk (Figure 4).
- Not all cases of COVID-19 resolve within three weeks '' the World Health Organization estimates that at least 10 percent of people exhibit symptoms 12 weeks or longer after their initial diagnosis of COVID-19 (about 400,000 cases in Canada). There are more than 100 different symptoms associated with long COVID, the most common being fatigue, general pain, sleep disturbances, shortness of breath, cognitive impairment and mental-health symptoms (Duong 2022). About9 percent of long-COVID sufferers were unableto return to work after three months.
- A work-in-progress longitudinal cohort study found that 53 percent of non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Canada still experienced symptoms three months after infection '' this decreased to 37 percent, 12 months post-infection (Duong 2022). In England, data collected through the Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission suggested that 19 percent of the English population had had COVID-19 between September 2020 and February 2021 and about one-third (37.7 percent) still experienced at least one symptom 12 weeks after infection (Whitaker et al. 2021). In the US, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that 2 percent to 5 percent of people with a mild case of COVID-19 still had symptoms six months after the acute phase of the illness ended, increasing
- to 15 percent to 26 percent for patients that were admitted to hospitals and 27 percent to 42 percent for those admitted to intensive care (ranges represent estimates for men and women, respectively). This research suggests a disability weight (a standardized weighting factor that reflects the relative severity of a state of health) of 0.21 '' ''equivalent to complete hearing loss or severe traumatic brain injury (Else 2022).''17 There remains significant uncertainty about the burden of long COVID, with no standardized measure for its implications for disability and longer-term population health and mortality.
- To estimate the number of long-COVID cases averted, we use the US estimates since they are based on the severity of disease. We assume that 3.5 percent of averted cases and 20.5 percent to 34.5 percent of averted hospitalizations would have resulted in a clinically significant long-COVID case.18 The results suggest that about 65,000 Canadian cases of long COVID have been averted by vaccination, of which more than 25,000 would also have been hospitalized during the acute phase of infection (Figure 5).
- Estimating the Net Benefit of VaccinationVaccination has clearly had direct benefits for Canadians' health'' it has reduced the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. In this section, we estimate the direct benefits of vaccination by mapping averted COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths to the associated costs of lost wages, hospital admissions and the statistical value of life. The costs of the vaccination program include the spending on vaccines and resources related to vaccine distribution and administration.
- Given the significant reduction in COVID-19 cases and severe outcomes of infection as a result of vaccines, they had indirect benefits as well in reducing the need for public-health infection prevention and control policies (particularly, restrictions on economic activity). These benefits are difficult to calculate, since provinces had different policies and thresholds for implementing various restrictions. Instead of estimating the aggregate costs and benefits of indirect effects of vaccination, we provide some illustrative examples.
- At the time of writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has infected 4.3 million people, led to 187,949 hospitalizations19 and caused 46,389 deaths in Canada. Those who became infected or have a confirmed exposure with COVID-19 were, or still are, required to self-isolate for five to 14 days (at different periods throughout the pandemic) or until symptoms clear. To estimate the direct benefit of vaccination-averted COVID-19 cases, we assume that each infected working person would miss
- five to 15 working days.20 For example, the average hourly wage for people 25-54 years of age was $32.39 (2021), which translates to about $1,295 to $3,886 in lost productivity/wages per typical COVID-19 case.21 The results in the previous section show that about 1.05 million cases of COVID-19 in the working-age population were prevented due to vaccinations. This translates to an estimated $1.2 billion to $3.7 billion in wages that would have been lost due to infections and missed work, accounting for varying work-force participation rates and wages by age group (Table 1).
- To estimate the value of averted cases of long COVID, we depend on estimates from published research to make assumptions about duration of absences or reduced working hours and the cost associated with additional treatment. One survey found that 44 percent of people with long COVID were out of the labour force and 51 percent worked fewer hours, while other research found that 9 percent of people were unable to return to work three months after getting COVID-19 (Duong 2022). At three months post-infection, more than one in five experienced fatigue (22 percent), about one in six (16 percent) reported cognitive changes, one in 10 had headaches (11 percent), dyspnea (shortness of breath, 9 percent) or chest heaviness or pain and tightness (8.5 percent).
- We estimate the value of reduced cases of long COVID as a simplified recovery timeline. We assume that all such cases would have stayed home from work initially for 15 working days (similar to regular cases of COVID). After that, we estimate half (51 percent) returning for reduced hours (20 hours per week), 44 percent remaining out of the labour force and the remaining 5 percent returning to work. As weeks progress, the proportion returning to full-time work adjusts linearly by 5.25 percent per week to 9 percent still remaining out of the labour force three months post infections. After 22 weeks, all long COVID cases are assumed to rejoin the labour market despite lingering symptoms in many cases.22
- Estimates show that vaccination prevented about 54,500 cases of long COVID in the working population (Figure 5). These cases would have represented about $331 million in lost wages as a result of extended time off work and reduced working hours.
- In addition, those with prolonged symptoms require more treatment. To estimate the costs of this additional treatment, we use the estimated prevalence of the main conditions/symptoms associated with long COVID and available data about the treatment cost of those conditions.23 The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) provides a patient-cost estimator tool for hospital costs treating various illnesses. The averted treatment costs for long COVID are estimated by using the treatment costs of similar ailments. For example, an episode of migraines or headaches is estimated to cost $2,537 to $3,492 depending on the age of the patient (CIHI 2022).
- We use estimates of the prevalence of the most common long-COVID symptoms and the costs of treatment by age group (where available) to calculate the savings associated with averted cases of long COVID. The treatment costs associated with the three most prevalent long-COVID symptoms (fatigue, headaches and cognitive changes, and difficulty breathing, chest pain or tightness) range from $2,250 to $5,000 per case and symptom. The estimated savings in the form of reduced treatment costs for long-COVID symptoms related to the nearly 65,000 averted cases are about $128 million.24 The averted costs of hospitalization are calculated based on the average cost of a hospital stay for COVID-19 ($24,000), resulting in estimated savings of $1.6 billion (CIHI 2022).
- Since the vaccines prevented many cases of COVID-19 and reduced the severity of the disease, they had a significant impact on mortality for the population more than 50 years of age, preventing about 30,900 deaths from the beginning of vaccination to May 2022. To translate this to figures comparable to other costs and benefits, we use the statistical value of life by age group from Chestnut and De Civita (2009), adjusted for inflation. With the statistical value of life ranging from $0.57 million (80+) to $2.23 million (60-69), the reduction in mortality associated with vaccination is equivalent to about $27.6 billion.
- In summary, vaccination directly averted about $1.56 billion to $4.02 billion in lost wages and missed work, and saved about $1.77 billion in healthcare costs associated with treating COVID-19 patients. While these averted costs are significant, they are dwarfed by the $27.6 billion statistical value of the 30,900 lives saved by vaccination.
- As of Oct. 9, 2022, 80.3 percent of Canadians had completed a primary series of a vaccine (two doses) and 56.6 percent of Canadians aged 12 and older had received at least one additional dose. To estimate the direct cost of vaccination efforts, we include publicly available information about the cost of vaccines, supplies used to administer them and information technology costs related to public health vaccination data.
- The Government of Canada spent more than ''$9 billion to procure vaccines and therapeutics and to provide international support.''25 A majority of this amount has been allocated to secure enough doses of vaccines for everyone in Canada. Initially, the government ordered 379 million doses of various vaccine types. So, roughly, a dose of vaccine cost $23.75 dollars on average.
- The cumulative number of all vaccine doses distributed in Canada was 100,019,578 as of July 21, 2022. This means $2.38 billion was spent on vaccine distribution.26
- As well, Canada ordered 286.9 million syringes to accommodate a range of requirements in the administration of vaccines. Syringes usually cost between $15 and $20 for a box of 100 depending on their source (Khan 2020), resulting in estimated total spending of $42.9 million to $57.4 million.
- On behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Public Services and Procurement Canada contracted a service provider to ''build further functionality into PHAC's existing operational, surveillance and coverage information technology (IT) systems, to help manage vaccine rollout, administration and reporting as the volume of deliveries increases.'' Such contracts cost $16,138,946, taxes included, on Jan. 7, 2021 (Government of Canada 2022).
- There are other direct costs associated with vaccine administration including facilities, freezers and dry ice for transportation and storage, and labour costs. These costs would be extremely difficult to calculate accurately '' billing rates differ by province and location of administration (public health vaccine centres, physicians' offices or pharmacies). As well, capital directed to vaccine efforts was likely sourced in part from existing supplies and will be redirected to other purposes following COVID-19. To estimate these additional direct costs, we used the provincial billing rates and COVID-19 fee codes for family physicians to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine.27 The billing amounts for COVID-19 vaccine administration varies by province ranging from $13 in Ontario to $40 in Saskatchewan (Table 3, CIHI 2022b). The results show that physician, nurse and pharmacist remuneration for administering COVID-19 vaccines cost a total of about $1.3 billion from the beginning of vaccine doses to July 17, 2022 (Table 2).
- About 82.7 million vaccines had been administered in Canada by July 17, 2022, while more than 100 million vaccines had been distributed as of July 22. The difference can be accounted for by the doses currently in circulation '' distributed, but not administered '' and likely some doses that expired or were otherwise unusable and disposed of '' distributed, but never administered.
- Summary '' Direct Costs and Benefits of Vaccination
- Overall, the estimates of direct costs and benefits from vaccination show clear net benefit: the costs that would have occurred in the form of missed days of work and health spending associated with treatment and hospitalization likely exceeded the
- direct cost of vaccines and their administration. In addition, vaccinations reduced the number of deaths in the population older than 50 by about 34,900. In terms of statistical value of life, those saved lives are worth some $27.6 billion. Even without including lives saved, the vaccines show net cost/benefit of -$0.4 billion to $2.1 billion in averted costs (Table 3).
- Indirect Costs and Benefits
- The scale and complexity of the pandemic, along with the associated public health policies to contain it, mean that there are many indirect costs and benefits related to vaccination. For example, vaccines enabled international travel for tourism and many economic activities to resume more normal operations. This was facilitated by the implementation of vaccine certificates, which required significant administrative efforts on the part of provincial governments and businesses that developed and implemented vaccination policies for workplaces, also at added cost. In addition, vaccination and associated policies had effects on political stability with the so-called ''freedom convoy'' created to protest vaccine mandates for the Canada-US border (though they evolved to protest COVID-19 mandates in general). It is generally beyond the scope of this Commentary to quantify these and other complex dynamics associated with
- the indirect effects of vaccines in a comprehensive way. Instead, our goal here is to discuss some examples of the indirect effects and, where relevant and feasible, quantify their costs and benefits.
- "Lockdowns" and the Economy
- One of the most obvious results of vaccination is that many economic activities could regain some semblance of normal operation as the likelihood of another stay-at-home order and closure of non-essential businesses and high-contact activities became less likely. Had vaccination efforts been delayed, it is highly likely that there would have been additional public health restrictions, imposing additional economic costs. To estimate the economic effects that would have occurred if vaccine efforts had been delayed, we use modelling from Kronick and Jenkins (2021) who estimate the economic effects of uniform versus targeted lockdown strategies. They based their modelling approach on the work of Acemoglu et al. (2020), which was itself based on the epidemiological susceptible, infectious or recovered (SIR) modelling literature. Using a modified scenario that adjusts parameters to account for the different viral characteristics of Omicron and extends the time prior to vaccine availability by six months provides an estimate of the economic costs that would likely have occurred.28
- In addition, Kronick and Jenkins modelled two different lockdown strategies'' a uniform approach and one that implemented different restrictions by age group. The reasoning for modelling different lockdown strategies is that most governments implemented uniform lockdowns, but research has shown that a targeted approach by age or industry would have achieved the same or better health outcomes with lower economic costs (Kronick and Jenkins 2021). If vaccines were not available, it is reasonable to assume that governments would continue to optimize and adapt public health policies. Modelling both a uniform and age-differentiated lockdown strategy accounts for the unknown of whether governments would have significantly adapted lockdown strategies to minimize economic impacts.
- Results show that one year of continued Canadian public health restrictions pre-vaccination would have resulted in GDP losses of about 31.4 percent under a targeted strategy. Extending the pre-vaccine period by six months would have, unsurprisingly, resulted in worse economic outcomes: estimates suggest a 44 percent reduction in annual economic output. These results suggest that a six-month delay in vaccination availability would have resulted in economic losses equivalent to about 12.5 percent of GDP, or about $156 billion in 2021.
- Vaccination and Indirect Public Health Benefits
- Avoiding lockdowns and reducing the spread of COVID-19 through vaccination also has broader implications for health and well-being. Averting lockdowns means averting associated costs, including but not limited to reductions in civil liberty, reduced access to educational opportunities and social contacts, delayed medical procedures, forgone routine preventive health services (e.g., vaccination and cancer screenings), worsened domestic violence, worsened mental health and increased deaths from overdoses.
- The longer-term effects of delayed medical procedures and forgone preventative and diagnostic activities are not yet known. However, the vaccines did have positive effects for the mental health of the population. According to Agrawal et al. (2021), COVID-19 vaccination led to a 28 percent reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms. Odihi et al. (2020) also discuss the indirect effects of vaccination in reducing fear of contagion and the severity of the disease, the equity effects of providing access to at-risk populations and the populations most affected by COVID-19 (lower income, higher proportion visible minority communities and vulnerable/immunocompromised individuals).
- The development of vaccines and the scale of vaccination programs also generated positive spillover effects. Scientific knowledge about COVID viruses, vaccines, immunology and epidemiology has rapidly grown during the process of vaccine discovery and development. The RNA-based platform provides new opportunities for the development of other vaccines.29 In addition, public health restrictions and vaccination campaigns evolved over the course of the pandemic. These experiences provide insights and strategies to improve government responses to future infectious disease crises. The massive amounts of clinical, epidemiological, scientific and public health information generated during the pandemic will inevitably contribute to the development of new medical treatments and vaccines and inform improvements to public health policy.
- Discussion and Policy ImplicationsOverall, our analysis shows that COVID-19 vaccination averted an estimated 21 percent of cases and 37 percent of hospitalizations. From January 2021 to May 2022, this represents 1.19 million fewer cases of COVID-19 and 68,000 fewer hospitalizations. Furthermore, 63.5 percent of deaths in the population over age 50 were averted, representing about 34,900 lives saved from January 2021 to May 2022. Translating these findings to averted costs and comparing them to the cost of vaccines and vaccination programs shows that the vaccines are cost-effective. The cost of vaccines and administration were about $3.7 billion while the savings associated with averted cases and hospitalizations were estimated to be $3.3 billion to $5.8 billion, resulting in a net estimate of -$0.4 billion to $2.1 billion, without considering mortality. The statistical value of reduced mortality is about $27.6 billion, dwarfing the costs of the vaccines and savings associated with averting more minor cases.
- Moreover, this analysis doesn't include the indirect effects of vaccination. For example, vaccines reduce the need or intensity of future lockdowns, meaning vaccines likely averted additional costs associated with lockdowns, including the growth of healthcare waitlists, negative mental health impacts and reduced economic activity. Since these averted costs and other non-health benefits of vaccines are not included in our estimates of direct effects, the net benefit of vaccination is likely underestimated.
- Many indirect effects of the COVID-19 vaccinations are difficult to quantify. However, a critical factor is public health policy related to the pandemic. If vaccines hadn't been available, it is highly likely that further lockdowns would have been necessary, with all their associated costs. Lockdowns were necessary to disrupt the spread of COVID-19 prior to vaccination providing another pathway for reducing transmission. However, they had significant costs for the economy and the population's mental health. We estimated the effect of delaying vaccines by six months, and results show that GDP would have dipped a further 12.5 percent.
- Time is a critical factor in an ongoing crisis. The sooner COVID-19 is controlled, the sooner both the direct and indirect costs fall. The speed of development and distribution of not just one but many different vaccines for COVID-19 is truly an achievement for humanity. And it was accomplished in record time.30 Within a year of the pandemic's onset, the first COVID-19 vaccines were developed, evaluated and approved by many countries and had begun being distributed and administered to populations. The speed of development, approval and procurement was impressive and required significant industry-government collaboration.
- In normal times, it takes an average of more than 18 months after a drug has been approved by Health Canada to be listed on public drug plans. Indeed, in 2019 a new active substance submitted earlier to Health Canada had taken 554 days (18.2 months) to be listed on a public drug plan formulary and an additional 113 days (3.7 months) to be available to at least 50 percent of public plan beneficiaries (Dobrescu 2022). In 2021, it took even longer, 829 days (27.25 months) for a new active substance to be available on a public drug plan.
- The time from submission to availability is a result of the many-layered sequential process of reviews before public drug plans make formulary listing decisions. The comparative speed of approval, procurement and access to COVID-19 vaccines occurred due to changes in the regulatory process that allowed for ongoing submission of new clinical data and regulatory processes to occur in parallel, rather than in sequence. This meant that submissions and evaluations for safety could begin while clinical trials were ongoing, and that reimbursement and procurement decisions could be made more quickly.
- The scale of the pandemic necessitated emergency adaptations of regulatory policies to ensure rapid access to vaccines. However, an indirect future benefit in vaccination development could be improving regulatory processes to reduce the time from approval to reimbursement under public insurance plans. In 2021, parallel Health Canada and Health Technology Assessment reviews resulted in a listing recommendation 29 days faster than those conducted in sequence. There are lessons to be learned about parallel regulatory steps, price negotiations and reducing the time-to-patient for innovative medical products.
- Clearly, Canada's mass public vaccination programs were effective, resulting in one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Most Canadians did not require encouragement to get vaccinated with many examples of people waiting in line for hours or constantly refreshing browsers in the hopes of receiving a jab.31
- However, continuing vaccine campaigns are necessary since the effectiveness of vaccines wanes over time. Two doses of COVID-19 vaccines appear to provide no protection against Omicron infections after six months and a third vaccine dose could increase efficacy to 61 percent (Duong and Vogel 2022). Given the mass nature of vaccination campaigns, large portions of the population will have waning immunity at the same time. Between March and October 2022, the third booster-dose uptake rate for people aged 12 and older remained consistently low at 56 percent. Only 11 percent of the population has received a fourth shot. The seasonal nature of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases (predominantly influenza) could pose a risk to an already strained and short-staffed hospital system if immunity levels in the population are allowed to decline.
- It is crucial to improve overall COVID-19 booster and influenza vaccine uptake. Historically, influenza vaccination coverage among all adults was around 40 percent.32 As the COVID-19 becomes endemic, the normalization of boosters and continued uptake, especially among older populations, will be necessary. The success of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns provides insights for other vaccination efforts, particularly for the working-age population. As policies adapt to the changing nature of COVID-19, there may be opportunities to link regular boosters with broader public health immunization and prevention efforts. It could be a useful touchpoint to ensure that other vaccinations are up-to-date and, when they are not, to provide an avenue for access.
- Achieving the rapid timeline of research, development, regulatory approval, production, procurement, distribution and administering vaccines is a collective success of scientists, public institutions, private industry and governments around the world. There are many lessons to be learned from the process, covering public policy areas from international trade and diplomacy to domestic regulatory processes and insurance negotiations. To ensure that Canada's healthcare system is prepared for future COVID-19 surges, governments should prioritize maintaining high levels of population immunity on an ongoing basis through continued vaccination efforts, while also encouraging uptake or updates of other routine vaccinations.
- In addition, federal and provincial governments should adapt regulatory processes and formulary decisions to reduce the time it takes for new medicines to go from market approval to being accessible to the public. The success of ongoing data submission and parallel processing of regulatory steps used for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments could serve as a template for adapting processes to take less time overall, or as a fast-tracking mechanism for high-priority products and treatments.
- Overall, vaccines were highly effective at reducing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths '' resulting in an estimated 21 percent fewer cases, 37 percent fewer hospitalizations and preventing 34,900 deaths (as of May 2022). Vaccines along with less-deadly COVID-19 variants provided a route out of rotating lockdowns and uncertainty. While the vaccines and vaccination efforts were successful and cost-effective, the continuing threat of COVID-19 means that continued effort is needed to maintain high levels of population immunity. In addition, there are many lessons to be learned from the pandemic, public health restrictions and vaccination programs affecting long-term health and emergency preparedness policy.
- References Acemoglu, Daron, et al. 2020. ''Optimal Targeted Lockdowns in a Multi-Group SIR Model.'' National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 27102. May.
- Agrawal, Virat, et al. 2021. ''The Impact of the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution on Mental Health Outcomes.'' National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 29593. December.
- Allen, Douglas W. 2021. ''Covid-19 Lockdown Cost/Benefits: A Critical Assessment of the Literature.'' International Journal of the Economics of Business 29(1): 1-32. September.
- Andrews, Nick, et al. 2022. ''Covid-19 Vaccine Effectiveness against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) Variant. New England Journal of Medicine. 386:1532-1546. April. Available at https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2119451
- Aran, Dvir. 2021. ''Estimating Real-world COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness in Israel Using Aggregated Counts.'' medRxiv. February.
- Bajema, Kristina L., et al. 2021. ''Effectiveness of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19''Associated Hospitalization '' Five Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, United States, February 1''August 6, 2021.'' Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 70(37):1294''1299.
- Barro, Robert J. 2022. ''Vaccination Rates and COVID Outcomes across U.S. States.'' National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Papers 29884. April.
- Berry, Christopher R., et al. 2021. ''Evaluating the Effects of Shelter-in-Place Policies during the COVID-19 Pandemic.'' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(15): e2019706118. April.
- Brown, Kevin A., et al. ''Early Impact of Ontario's COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout on Long-Term Care Home Residents and Health Care Workers.'' Science Briefs of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table 2(13). March.
- Canada Institute for Health Information (CIHI). 2022. ''COVID-19 Hospitalization and Emergency Department Statistics.'' April. Available at https://www.cihi.ca/en/covid-19-hospitalization-and-emergency-department-statistics
- ______________. 2022b. ''Physician billing codes in response to COVID-19.'' April. Available at https://www.cihi.ca/en/physician-billing-codes-in-response-to-covid-19
- Canadian Medical Association. 2021. ''A struggling system: Understanding the health care impacts of the pandemic.'' November. Available at https://www.cma.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/health-advocacy/Deloitte-report-nov2021-EN.pdf
- Cohn, Barbara A., et al. 2022. ''SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Protection and Deaths among US Veterans during 2021.'' Science 375(6578): 331-336. January.
- Cutler, David M. 2022. ''The Costs of Long COVID.'' The Journal of the American Medical Association Forum. May. Available at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2792505
- Dagan, Noa, et al. ''BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine in a Nationwide Mass Vaccination Setting.'' The New England Journal of Medicine 384:1412-1423. April.
- Dave, Dhaval, et al. 2021. ''When Do Shelter-in-Place Orders Fight Covid-19 Best? Policy Heterogeneity across States and Adoption Time.'' Economic Inquiry 59(1)29''52. August.
- Duong, Diana. 2022. ''The evolving picture of long COVID.'' Canadian Medical Association Journal, 194(24) E850-E851. June. Available at https://www.cmaj.ca/content/194/24/E850
- Duong, Diana, and Lauren Vogel. 2022. ''Booster Uptake Stalling as Experts Debate fourth COVID Shots.'' Canadian Medical Association Journal 194(14): E532-533. April.
- Else, Holly. 2022. ''The pandemic's true health cost: how much of our lives has COVID stolen? ''Nature. May. Available at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01341-7
- Friedson, Andrew I., et al. 2020. ''Did California's Shelter-in-Place Order Work? Early Coronavirus-Related Public Health Effects.'' National Bureau of Economic Research. April.
- Griffin, Jennifer B., et al. 2021. ''SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Hospitalizations Among Persons Aged '¥16 Years, by Vaccination Status '' Los Angeles County, California, May 1- July 25, 2021.'' Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 70(34):1170-1176. August.
- Goldberg, Yair, et al. 2021. ''Waning Immunity after the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Israel.'' The New England Journal of Medicine 385:e85. December.
- Government of Canada. 2022. ''Procuring vaccines for COVID-19.'' February. Available at https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/services/procuring-vaccines-covid19.html
- Haas, Eric J, et al. 2021. ''Impact and Effectiveness of mRNA BNT162b2 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 Infections and COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalisations, and Deaths Following a Nationwide Vaccination Campaign in Israel: An Observational Study Using National Surveillance Data.'' The Lancet 397(10287): 1819-1829. May.
- Herby, Jonas, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke. 2022. ''A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality.'' Studies in Applied Economics 200. January.
- Khan, Nizam. 2020. ''Insulin Prices: Pumps, Pens, Syringes, and More.'' Healthline. March. Available at https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/insulin-prices-pumps-pens-syringes#insulin-vials-and-syringes
- Kharroubi, Samer, and Fatima Saleh. 2020. ''Are Lockdown Measures Effective Against COVID-19?'' Front. Public Health 8:549692. October.
- Kronick, Jeremy and Paul Jenkins. 2021. ''From Here to Full Inoculation: How an Epidemiological Economic Model Can Help as We Roll Out Vaccines.'' C. D. Howe Institute Working Paper. February. Available at https://www.cdhowe.org/sites/default/files/attachments/research_papers/mixed/Working%20Paper%20-%20From%20Here%20to%20Full%20Innoculation_0.pdf
- May, Mike. 2021. ''After COVID-19 successes, researchers push to develop mRNA vaccines for other diseases.'' Nature Medicine 27(930-932). May. Available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01393-8
- Mental Health Research Canada. 2020. ''Mental Health in Crisis: How COVID-19 Is Impacting Canadians (Poll #1).'' May. Available at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f31a311d93d0f2e28aaf04a/t/5f867fb52702a94f8015b958/1602650044612/Summary+Report+of+Key+Survey+Findings+-+FINAL.pdf
- ______________. 2021. ''Mental Health in Crisis: How COVID-19 Is Impacting Canadians (Poll #6).'' May. Available at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f31a311d93d0f2e28aaf04a/t/60cb4e65423079625bbf430a/1623936614551/MHRC+Covid+Poll+6+Report+-+Full+Version+-+Public+Release.pdf
- Moghadas, Seyed M., et al. 2021. ''The Impact of Vaccination on COVID-19 Outbreaks in the United States.'' medRxiv [Preprint]. January.
- Nourbakhsh, Shokfeh, et al. 2022. A wastewater-based epidemic model for SARS-Cov-2 with application to three Canadian cities. Epidemics. 39(100560): June. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436522000172
- Odihi, Deborah, et al. 2020. ''Economics of COVID-19 Vaccines.'' Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center. December. Available at https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/vaccines/report/economics-of-covid-19-vaccines
- Plett, Donna, Petros Pechlivanoglou, and Peter C. Coyte. 2022. ''The Impact of Provincial Lockdown Policies and COVID-19 Case and Mortality Rates on Anxiety in Canada.'' Psychiatry Clinical Neurosciences. June.
- Poeschl, Johannes, and Rasmus Bisgaard Larsen. 2021. ''How Do Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Affect the Spread of COVID-19? A Literature Review.'' Nationalbanken Economic Memo 4:20. April.
- Public Health Agency of Canada. 2022. ''Update on COVID-19 in Canada: Epidemiology and Modelling.'' January. Available at https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/diseases-maladies/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/epidemiological-economic-research-data/update-covid-19-canada-epidemiology-modelling-20220114-en.pdf
- ______________. 2022b. ''COVID-19 vaccination in Canada''. Available at https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccination-coverage/
- Razak, Fahad, et al. 2022. ''Canada's Response to the Initial 2 years of the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Comparison with Peer Countries.'' Canadian Medical Association Journal, 194(25) E870-E877. June.
- Robinson, Lisa A., Ryan Sullivan, and Jason F. Shogren. 2020. ''Do the Benefits of COVID-19 Policies Exceed the Costs? Exploring Uncertainties in the Age''VSL Relationship.'' Risk analysis: An International Journal. July.
- Rodrigues, Charlene M. C., and Stanley A. Plotkin. 2020. ''Impact of Vaccines; Health, Economic and Social Perspectives.'' Frontiers in Microbiology 11:1526. July.
- Salek, Sam, et al. 2019. ''Factors Influencing Delays in Patient Access to New Medicines in Canada: A Retrospective Study of Reimbursement Processes in Public Drug Plans.'' Frontiers in Pharmacology. March. Available at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.00196/full.
- Santabrbara, Javier, et al. 2021. ''Prevalence of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic: An updated meta-analysis of community-based studies.'' Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacol & Biological Psychiatry 109:110207. July.
- Statistics Canada. 2020. ''COVID-19 in Canada: A Six-month Update on Social and Economic Impacts.'' October. Available at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2020003-eng.htm
- ______________. 2021. ''COVID-19 in Canada: A One-year Update on Social and Economic Impacts.'' March. Available at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2021001-eng.htm
- ______________. 2021b. ''Labour force characteristics by sex and detailed age group, annual''. Available at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410032701
- ______________. 2022. ''COVID-19 in Canada: A Two-year Update on Social and Economic Impacts.'' March. Available at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2022001-eng.htm
- ______________. 2022. ''Canadian Economic Dashboard and COVID-19.'' June. Available at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2020009-eng.htm
- ______________2022. ''Canadian Wastewater Survey, December 2021 to January 2022.'' February. Available at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220218/dq220218d-eng.htm
- Suthar, Amitabh Bipin, et al. ''Public Health Impact of Covid-19 Vaccines in the United States: Observational Study.'' The British Medical Journal 377:e069317. March.
- Tan, Sophia T., et al. 2022. ''COVID-19 Vaccination and Estimated Public Health Impact in California.'' JAMA Network Open 5(4): e228526. April.
- Vogel, Lauren, and Diana Duong. 2021. ''What's the Evidence for COVID-19 Booster Shots?'' Canadian Medical Association Journal, 193(35): E1400-1401. September.
- Vilches, Thomas N., et al. ''Projecting the Impact of a Two-dose COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign in Ontario, Canada.'' Vaccine, 39(17): 2360-2365. April.
- Watson, Oliver J., et al. 2022. ''Global Impact of the First Year of COVID-19 Vaccination: A Mathematical Modelling Study.'' The Lancet Infectious Disease. June.
- Whitaker, Matthew, et al. 2021. ''Persistent Symptoms Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Random Community Sample of 508,707 people.'' medRxiv [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259452. July.
- World Health Organization. 2021. ''Clinical long-term effects of COVID-19.'' March. Available at https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/risk-comms-updates/update54_clinical_long_term_effects.pdf?sfvrsn=3e63eee5_8
- Wyonch, Rosalie. 2021. Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: Seniors' Care After COVID-19. Commentary 614. Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute.December. Available at https://www.cdhowe.org/public-policy-research/ounce-prevention-worth-pound-cure-seniors-care-after-covid-19
- Zaqouta, Ahmed, et al. 2021. ''The Initial Impact of a National BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout.'' International Journal of Infectious Diseases 108: 116-118. July.
- Town '-- and maybe homeowners '-- face expensive Title V changes | EastBayRI.com - News, Opinion, Things to Do in the East Bay
- Thousands of Westport homeowners could be on the hook for expensive septic upgrades under a series of Title V (septic) amendments being rolled out early next year, though Westport officials are hoping for a more palatable town-wide solution.
- The proposed changes would designate dozens of Cape Cod and South Coast watersheds as nitrogen-sensitive "Natural Resource Areas," and could require septic owners within those watersheds, even those who have upgraded septic systems, to further upgrade their systems with the "best available" nitrogen reducing technology within five years of the regulations' passage. In Westport, which is not in full compliance with state water quality standards for nitrogen, that comes out to an estimated 5,000 homes.
- However, there is an alternative, as the state is giving a second option for compliance with new regs. Communities like Westport can apply for 20-year "watershed permits," in which officials agree to reduce nitrogen loading by up to 75 percent over the life of the permit. If towns opt to seek a permit, homeowners will be spared their five-year upgrade requirement and it will be up to the town to take measures to reduce nitrogen pollution here.
- The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is giving the public until Friday, Dec. 16, to comment on the proposed changes, and the Board of Health's Philip Weinberg is drafting a response for the town.
- As he brought board members up to speed on the issue last Monday, he said that no matter which way it's sliced, the amendments could have a big financial impact on Westport, either in cost to homeowners or the cost to taxpayers.
- The state's goal in the regulations is to reduce the effect nitrogen pollution has on the region's estuaries and coastal areas. Some towns in the region have done a poor job of reducing nitrogen loads while others, including Westport, have made the issue a priority in recent years. Between requiring stringent septic technology in new building permits and keeping an eye on the health of the Westport River's two branches, Weinberg said, the town is doing more than many communities to stay ahead of the regulatory curve.
- "We're aggressive or progressive in land protection in ways that protects tributaries to the water," he said, adding that the board of health has worked for years to actively promote nitrogen reduction. As a result, "we're in much better shape than we were a few years ago. The west branch is actually in compliance (with water quality standards) and the east branch is fairly close."
- Weinberg said DEP rolled out two options because while he believes the state prefers the permit route, "they don't have the authority to compel towns to buy in to the watershed permit, but they do have authority" over Title V.
- "So what they've done, in my opinion, is that they have made the Title V provisions sufficiently onerous that the town would more of less be compelled" to seek a permit over the alternative, putting the whole issue on property owners' backs.
- In Westport's watershed, which despite all the town's work is still designated 'nitrogen sensitive,' the impact would be felt by most property owners if that option wins out.
- "Even if you have a fully compliant Title V system you have to retrofit it with a nitrogen reducing system and all of that has to be accomplished within five years," Weinberg said. "You're talking about maybe 5,000 or 6,000 septic systems retrofitted (at) $13,000 to $40,000. You're talking about tens of millions of dollars to be expended over five years '-- it's pretty outrageous."
- But if the town goes the permit route, he said, "we would have to commit to a series of very specific activities that would model out to meet the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Limit for nitrogen) within 20 years."
- "I think it's great that we've made progress, and I'm hoping if at the point where we sit down with DEP and we're able to demonstrate the progress we've made .... that they will say, 'OK, we'll move on to other communities that need our intervention more than you do,'" he said.
- During Monday's meeting, select board member Brian Valcourt, a contractor, said he believes the state's offer of a choice '-- upgraded individual systems or a town-wide permit '-- amounts to "legalized extortion."
- "It's terrible, it's legalized extortion, and it's wrong," he said.
- Putting aside the obvious pain the regulations would cause individual homeowners if that route was chosen, the town would still be on the hook if the permit option wins out, as it will come with costs that are un-funded.
- "The state needs to pony up some money," Valcourt said. It's not enough for DEP to say, "'Hey, you need to meet this standard but we're not going to give you any money to do that.'"
- With the public comment period looming Friday, Weinberg said he expects his comments will mostly focus on the Title V/property owner option.
- "For many many years the DEP was kind of the gorilla in the closet about what would be done by way of enforcement or compliance," Weinberg said. "So the gorilla is out of the closet in a really big way.
- Still, "it's not going to happen tomorrow, so I think we are going to have time to plan and react (to) give them a chance to re-think what they're doing."
- Don't Fall For It in [Market-Ticker]
- Breathlessly, I tell you, breathlessly, over-unity fusion has been achieved !
- Don't buy that bullshit; they're lying.
- Specifically its crap until you can show me all of the following:
- A sustainable reaction that continues for hours, not microseconds. I can't make power out of a single microsecond event. I can make power out of a reaction that continues for hours and evolves energy while doing so. Until you can do the latter you have nothing and nothing in the current results, assuming they're real, nor anything in prior results suggests progress toward that.The over-parity ratio of energy output to input is exponentially (that is, by at least 10x) high. A conventional nuclear fission plant requires about 10% of the output nameplate rating in input power just to operate. This is why you can't black-start such a plant (well, I have a theory that might work to do it in an emergency, but if it goes badly..... oops!) and this also, to a large degree, applies to other conventional energy such as coal. The scrubbers, conveyors, grinding apparatus for the input fuel and similar all require a lot of energy input, so you have to get a lot back out to make it worth it. Coal, natural gas, nuclear fission and oil all do. Until fusion can produce 10x as much energy on the output side as you put in to cause the fusion its a laboratory curiosity piece, not a source of commercial power. Exactly zero progress has been made toward that in the last 50+ years.The energy produced has to be able to be captured and converted into usable power of some form, either chemical, mechanical or electrical, and thus the above point must be measured after said conversion . Gamma rays are energy but they're not usable thus until and unless you can transform them into one of those forms they don't count . Yes, on a physics level energy is energy but in terms of practical use that is not true and it is fraudulent to represent that which is not the case to others.You must be able to source the reactants with the product energy and have enough left over to be operationally viable as a business. This is non-trivial as well because the fusion we have achieved thus far requires deuterium and/or tritium. Both are exceedingly rare hydrogen isotopes (about ~150 per million for deuterium) and because they are chemically the same as ordinary hydrogen separating them is a five-alarm pain in the neck that requires a great deal of energy itself. In addition tritium is atomically unstable (that is, it decays) so you can't store it permanently either (deuterium is atomically stable, on the other hand, so with deuterium you can.)Let me know when there's a viable engineering pathway to the above.
- Until then keep they breathless exclamations to yourself; you're making a fool of yourself promoting and cheering on crap, beyond continuing work on possibly reaching those above points -- at some far, far into the future and only after someone pulls a "Scotty" in terms of a breakthrough that today we have no engineering path that places it within reach.
- And incidentally, if you think they actually got back more than they put in, even leaving the externalities above aside, you were conned on that too. Here's the salient statement from the article itself:
- But that changed in the dead of night on Dec. 5. At 1 AM local time, researchers used laser beams to zap a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel. The lasers produced 2.05 megajoules of energy, and the pellet released roughly 3.15 megajoules.
- "It is a big scientific step," says Ryan McBride, a nuclear engineer at the University of Michigan. But, McBride adds, that does not mean that NIF itself is producing power. For one thing, he says, the lasers require more than 300 megajoules worth of electricity to produce around 2 megajoules of ultraviolet laser light. In other words, even if the energy from the fusion reactions exceeds the energy from the lasers, it's still only around one percent of the total energy used.
- So the laser beams contained 2.05MJ of energy but the unit consumed 300 MJ of energy to produce the 2.05 MJ of laser beams that was aimed at the target.
- In other words they produced about 1% of the energy they put in, not 120% .
- The blunt word for what was allegedly reported, in other words, is bullshit .
- FBI/Twitter Stasiland Files Not A Story, But Temporary Ban Of Musk Doxxers Leads To International Crisis In Journalism
- ''We should give credit where credit is due and face the fact that as of now without Musk's intervention Twitter would have remained a secret society of young socialist tech boffins working to silence any dissent that does not serve the interest of traitors that wish to destroy our Republic and enslave us. Irrespective of other criticisms thrown at him that is a fact.''
- I'm not sure what Fang means by ''War On Terror stuff'' but this sums the dreary, depressing FBI/Twitter situation up in five lines. I expect many people are shrugging it off. We're so beaten down since 2016, we barely react when it comes to light that the FBI was not only fully integrated/infiltrated into Twitter as a medium, it placed daily termination orders on accounts, including those who merely joked about election fraud, which Twitter employees responded to like dutiful waiters hoping for good tips.
- Did you know the FBI was that humorless?
- We're not sure how to react, or whether there's any point trying to react.
- If we don't react to Twitter Files part 6, in all its hideous implications, it means that Americans, in 2022, identify as East Germans, circa 1969. After the Berlin Wall fell, the former GDR government gave every East German citizen the choice to open their surveillance files. Some of those who chose to open their file and read it were shattered by the contents. neighbors, friends, even spouses were revealed to have been informants. Would you open yours? I would not.
- I'm not sure what to say. This is a communist country, with better food.
- If you want to be distracted by reading about a more interesting communist dictatorship than this one, t his '--Stasiland: Stories From Behind The Berlin Wall, by Anna Funder'--is an outstanding book. Maybe I'll re-read it, for a third time, to distract myself from the perpetual peeping Tom slime vibe of living in the FBI's USA, 2022. Humorless, drab, hysterical, narcissistic, and approaching every opinion not their own as a dangerous snake that has to be attacked with a shovel, in the name of combatting ''hate'' and protecting ''democracy.''
- How much more of this are we expected to take?
- I have a queasy feeling somebody may find me in one of these files, one day. I did get disappeared, without explanation, in 2021. Do I want to know?
- In one day it comes out that the CIA was (as we knew) involved in JFK's assassination, and that the FBI runs, controls, and edits Twitter, directly, and that's the only media outlet we know t hey run.
- But none of that made the news.
- The FBI is disgusting. Twitter was disgusting, somewhat less so now. But it's clear the Bolshiviki plan to make the whole thing about them, and make it insufferable, only in a new way.
- As Musk says, he purchased a ''crime scene.'' Jack Dorsey is inscrutable'-- never had any clear values that I could discern. Now all we have to look forward to is perpetual mobbing of Elon Musk, the new Trump, the new Bad Bad Rich Daddy'-- the new object of sadistic derision 24/7.
- We no longer produce any culture'-- our culture is online mockery. Nobody can conceive of respecting somebody they ''disagree'' with.
- We're a nation of damned schoolyard bullies.
- The only story the mainstream media saw fit to freak out about about today was Elon Musk suspending accounts of 5, or 6 or 8 journalists, (who had been involved in doxxing him, and threatening his child, if I have to right.) To MSM, it was an existential threat to the first amendment (which they suddenly claim to value,) and to journalism, so much so that journalism organizations were dug up, to comment on the crisis.
- They contacted the United Nations. They got condemnations from France, Germany, the UK and the European Union. You have to read it to believe it:
- From (Bill Gates funded) Reuters:
- ''STORY: Twitter's unprecedented suspension of at least five journalists drew swift backlash from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations across the globe on Friday.
- United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. was disturbed by the 'arbitrary' suspensions:
- "Media voices should not be silenced on a platform that professes to be a space for freedom of speech. From our standpoint, the move sets a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats, and even worse . And we are remaining in touch with officials at Twitter."
- [Note: I was faced with much worse than this, in 2006, and the UN and EU never felt sorry for me or said the retaliation against me by AIDS activists and researchers ''set a dangerous precedent.'' Nobody even called it ''chilling.'' Harper's had AIDS activists doxxing their whole staff, demanding resignations, demanding I be condemned, demanding my article be rescinded, and their pro-pharma propaganda be published in the very next issue. Literally. I was threatened with murder, on Facebook, and even dismemberment, but I never got the United Nations to say so much as boo about it. I'm starting to finally get mad. Am I not a journalist? What are you, then, if you publish 11,000 words in Harpers? Never mind ME. Many journalists are killed for their stories. Or driven to suicide. These clowns were suspended for less than 24 hours from Twitter, after doxxing Elon Musk's toddler. ]
- Back to the blood-boiling article in Reuters, pretending this represents a global crisis in press freedom:
- ''Twitter suspended the accounts over claims they revealed the real-time location of owner Elon Musk.
- "It will definitely have a chilling effect on coverage of him."
- ''Aaron Rupar is an independent journalist covering U.S. media and politics, and publisher of the newsletter, 'Public Notice'. On Wednesday he published a newsletter critical of Musk:
- "I published a newsletter taking a close look at kind of his brand of populism, and how he postures as a populist but he's really kind of appealing to the far right and trying to marginalize people who are already marginalized, trans people, LGBT people."
- ''By Thursday, Rupar's popular Twitter account had been suspended.
- "It seemed like beyond being critics of Elon, the one thing that all of us had in common was that we had linked to the Facebook page tracking his private jets."
- ''On Wednesday, Twitter suspended an account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk's private plane using publicly available information.'' Could you make this up? They quote him admitting he and all the other doxxed Musk.
- ''It seemed like beyond being critics of Elon, the one thing that all of us had in common was that we had linked to the Facebook page tracking his private jets.''
- Was this article written by AI? That quote implodes the whole premise of the piece'--punctures it. There was no crisis of press freedom at Twitter: The whole thing was about disciplinary measures against doxxing. And they admit that! Musk stands accused of not making rules about doxxing clear before he was doxxed. But the UN, and EU, and the ''journalism organizations'' could not even identify that this horrendous suppression of free speech resulted from doxxing, not from ''Elon Musk criticism.'' In the next passage, you will see Elon's fury over his child being threatened transmogrified into ''his whims.''
- This is the thing with this crowd: They don't have a fair bone in their body. If they had one fair bone it would cause them to limp. They are perfectly and obscenely, unfair. Woke, in a word. To be Woke is to be perfectly unfair, like the brat child who punches another child, starts a fight, but cries when he gets punched back. It must be great to be a protected species in ''journalism.''
- ''Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of "live location information."
- ''A day later, Rupar and several journalists including from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post were suspended from Twitter with no notice.
- "So in effect, I was banned for something that when I posted it was not a violation of the terms of service, but retroactively was deemed to be that, which obviously has kind of negative implications for anybody who's doing coverage of Elon, where it seems like these rules can change kind of arbitrarily and based on his whims. And I guess the real lesson is that if they want to find a reason to ban people, you know, he can find that they can kind of come up with an explanation later on."
- ''Twitter's head of trust and safety said in an email to Reuters the team manually reviewed "any and all accounts" that violated the new privacy policy by posting direct links to the ElonJet account.
- ''Officials from France, Germany, the U.K. and the European Union condemned the suspensions, with some saying the platform was jeopardizing press freedom.
- ''Rupar said the platform - where he has built a large following - is key to reaching his audience, and a permanent ban would be a major professional setback.
- "You know, it is kind of a little bit of a disconcerting reminder of how reliant people like myself have become on a platform that until a few months ago, I think we assumed that there were kind of rules of the road, that there was transparency, that you could appeal decisions like this. And what we're seeing is that that's kind of gone out the window and that, you know, it's whatever Elon wants these days is what he gets."
- Neither the Reuters reporter, the UN, or the EU, or France, Germany or the UK, thought to consider, or report, the fact that Elon was taking polls all day about when exactly (not whether) he should restore the doxxes' accounts.
- No, it had to be a crisis in journalism around the globe.
- On the same day Twitter Files Part Six by Matt Taibbi reveals smoking gun evidence that the FBI had 80 agents working on censoring Twitter'--sending directives to terminate accounts they didn't like, including humor accounts. But that wasn't the crisis in press freedom. That wasn't even news. JD Rucker writes: ''Somebody needs to go to jail.''
- Meanwhile, the accounts were all restored tonight, as decided by popular vote on Twitter:
- And Rupar, having no decency whatsoever, thanks his supportive ''community.'' Tells them that thanks to them, he pulled through. What a horse's ass.
- M 3.6 - 1km ENE of El Cerrito, CA
- The Earthquake Event Page application supports most recent browsers, view supported browsers. Or, try our Real-time Notifications, Feeds, and Web Services.
- Elon Tries (Badly) To Defend The Banning Of Journalists As Twitter Starts Blocking Links & Mentions Of Mastodon | Techdirt
- from the do-I-sense-some-worry? deptLook, I fucking warned Elon that this is exactly how it would go. It's how it always goes.
- Remember Parler? They promised that they would moderate ''based off the FCC and the Supreme court of the United States'' (a nonsensical statement for a variety of reasons, including that the FCC does not regulate websites). Then, as soon as people started abusing that on the site, they suddenly came out with, um, new rules, including no ''posting pictures of your fecal matter.''
- Or how about Gettr? Founded by a former Trump spokesperson, and funded by a sketchy Chinese billionaire, it promised to be a ''free speech'' haven. Then it had to ban a bunch of white nationalists for, you know, doing white nationalist shit. Then, suddenly, it started banning anyone who mentioned that the sketchy billionaire funder might actually be a Chinese spy.
- And then there's Truth Social. It's also supposed to be all about free speech, right? That's what its pitch man, Donald Trump, keeps insisting. Except, an actual study that compared its content moderation to other sites found that Truth Social's moderation was far more aggressive and arbitrary than any other site. Among the forbidden things to ''truth'' about on Truth Social? Any talk of the Congressional hearings on January 6th. Much freedom. Very speech.
- So, look, it's no surprise that Musk was never actually going to be able to live up to his notoriously fickle word regarding ''free speech'' on Twitter. I mean, we wrote many, many articles highlighting all of this.
- But, really, it would be nice if he didn't then insult everyone's intelligence about this and pretend that he's still taking some principled righteous stand. It would be nice if he admitted that ''oh shit, maybe content moderation is trickier than I thought'' and maybe, just maybe, ''Twitter actually had a really strong and thoughtful trust & safety team that actually worked extremely hard to be as permissive as possible, while still maintaining a website that users and advertisers liked.'' But that would require an actual ability to look inward and recognize mistakes, which is not one of Elon's strongsuits.
- So, last night, after banning a ton of journalist accounts on Twitter, Elon and his Trust & Safety VP, Ella Irwin, tried to defend the decision. But they did so badly. Irwin pushed out a bullshit statement to the media:
- ''Without commenting on any specific user accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk,'' Irwin said. ''We don't make exceptions to this policy for journalists or any other accounts.''
- Yeah'... that's not what people are complaining about. They weren't saying journalists should get special treatment for breaking the rules. They're asking how the fuck did what these journalists posted break the rules?
- Eventually Musk jumped on Twitter, of course, and like Irwin, tried to pretend that they were just making sure the rules applied equally to journalists as to everyone else. Except'... that was always the case? The issue was that yesterday, they created new laughably stupid rules to ban an account tweeting publicly available information regarding Elon Musk's jet. Then Musk took it further and claimed that this (again) publicly available information was ''assassination coordinates.''
- Well, except for a few minor details. First, he just fucking changed the terms of service to shut down the jet tracker, and made them so broad and vague that tons of tweets would violate the rule '-- including anyone using Twitter's built-in location indicator to tweet a photo of someone else. Second, the location of his plane is public information. It's not ''assassination coordinates.'' If Musk is worried about getting assassinated, hiding this account isn't going to help, because the assassin will just go straight to the ADS-B source and get the data anyway. Third, I get that Musk claims his child was in a car that was attacked the other night, but there remain some open questions about that story. For example, the location where it occurred, as deduced by BellingCat, was not close to any airport.
- Given that, it's not at all clear how this is connected to the jet tracking service.
- Furthermore, the LAPD put out a statement on this:
- LAPD's Threat Management Unit (TMU) is aware of the situation and tweet by Elon Musk and is in contact with his representatives and security team. No crime reports have been filed yet.
- Which, you know, seems notable. Because if a stalker actually went after him, you'd think that rather than just posting about it on social media, he might contact the police?
- But, most importantly, none of the journalists in question actually posted ''real time'' assassination coordinates for Musk. They had posted about this whole story having to do with content moderation decisions made by Musk. Hell, one of the journalists, Donie Sullivan, got banned for tweeting that LAPD statement.
- So, yeah, it's not about ''equal treatment'' for journalists. It's about coming up with bullshit arbitrary rules that just so happen to ban the journalists who have been calling out all the dumb shit Elon has been doing. Which, you know, was the kinda thing Elon insisted was the big problem under the last regime, and insisted he was brought in to solve.
- From there it got even worse. A bunch of journalists, including a few of those who were banned (who, for unclear reasons were still able to log into Twitter Spaces, the real-time audio chat feature of Twitter) began discussing all of this, and Elon Musk showed up to'... well'... not quite defend himself? But, uh, to do whatever this was:
- It starts with (banned) Washington Post journalist Drew Harwell asking a pretty good journalistic question:
- One, I don't think anyone in this room supports stalking. I'm sorry to hear about what happened with your family. Do you have evidence connecting the incident in LA with this flight tracking data? And separately, if this is an important enough issue to you, why not enact the rule change on Twitter and give accounts like Jack Sweeney's, time to respond to, like you said, a slight delay in providing the data? Why say last month that you would support keeping his account online for free speech and then immediately suspend not just his account, but journalists reporting on it?
- Unfortunately, before Elon could say anything, another reporter, Katie Notopoulos from Buzzfeed (who started the Twitter Space) jumped in with, perhaps, a less well composed question (this isn't criticism '-- coming up with questions on the spot is difficult '-- but I do wonder what would have happened if Musk had been allowed to respond directly to Drew's question).
- Elon, thank you for joining, I am hoping that you can give a little more context about what has happened in the last few hours with a handful of journalists being banned?
- Elon then says a lot of nonsense, basically just that ''doxing is bad and anyone who has been threatened should agree with this policy.''
- Well, as I'm sure everyone who's been doxed would agree, showing real-time information about somebody's location is inappropriate. And I think everyone would not like that to be done to them. And there's not going to be any distinction in the future between so-called journalists and regular people. Everyone is going to be treated the same'--no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended. End of story.
- And ban evasion or trying to be clever about it, like ''Oh, I posted a link '-- to the real-time information,'' that's obviously something trying to evade the meaning, that's no different from actually showing real-time information.
- I mean, a lot of this is kind of infuriating. Because many of the bans that happened in the last regime, and which Musk got so mad about, were also about putting people in danger. And Musk seems singularly concerned only when he's the target. Over the weekend, he posted some incredibly misleading bullshit about his former head of trust & safety, Yoel Roth, taking an old tweet and a clip from his dissertation and acting as if both said the literal opposite of what Roth was saying in them (in both cases, Yoel was actually highlighting issues regarding keeping children safe from predators, and Elon and legions of his fans pretended he was doing the opposite, which is just trash). Following that, a large news organization that I will not name posted a very clear description of Yoel's home, and tweeted out a link with those details. That tweet still is on Twitter today, and Yoel and his family had to flee their home after receiving very credible threats.
- Again, I repeat, the tweet that identified his home is still on Twitter today. And Elon has done nothing about it.
- So spare me the claim that this is about ''inappropriate'' sharing of information. None of the information the journalists shared was inappropriate, and Musk himself has contributed to threats on people's lives.
- As for the whole ban evasion thing, well, that's also nonsense, but there's more. Notopoulos asked another question:
- When you're saying, 'posting a link to it,' I mean, some of the people like Drew and Ryan Mac from The New York Times, who were banned, they were reporting on it in the course of pretty normal journalistic endeavors. You consider that like a tricky attempted ban evasion?
- You show the link to the real-time information '' ban evasion, obviously.
- So, again, that's not at all what ''ban evasion'' means. The ban was on the information. Not a link to an account. Or a reporter talking about an article that links to an account. Or a reporter talking about a police report that very loosely kinda connects to the account.
- And, again, banning links to the media was the thing that I thought Musk and his fans were completely up in arms about regarding the ban on the link to the NY Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop. Remember? It was like a week ago that it was a ''huge reveal'' by Elon Musk and his handpicked reporters, who apparently revealed what was the crime of the century and possibly treason when Twitter banned a link over worries of harm. Drew Harwell, finally getting a chance to ask a question, got into this slightly awkward exchange where the two seem to be talking about different things, but Drew is making the point comparing it to the NY Post thing:
- Drew: You're suggesting that we're sharing your address, which is not true. I never posted your address.
- Elon: You posted a link to the address.
- Drew: In the course of reporting about ElonJet, we posted links to ElonJet, which are now banned on Twitter. Twitter also marks even the Instagram and Mastodon accounts of ElonJet as harmful. We have to acknowledge, using the exact same link-blocking technique that you have criticized as part of the Hunter Biden-New York Post story in 2020. So what is different here?
- Elon: It's not more acceptable for you than it is for me. It's the same thing.
- Drew: So it's unacceptable what you're doing?
- Elon: No. You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it.
- And with that ''end of story'' he left the chat abruptly, even as others started asking more questions.
- So that whole exchange makes no sense. They're clearly talking past each other, and Elon is so focused on the ''journalists doxing!'' that he can't even seem to comprehend what Drew is actually asking him there, which is comparing it to the NY Post thing.
- And, of course, it also seems relevant to the January 6th/Donald Trump decision, which Musk has also roundly criticized. One of Musk's buddies, Jason Calacanis, was also in the space defending Musk, and I only heard bits and pieces of it because (1) Twitter Spaces kept kicking me out and (2) before the Space ended, Twitter took all of Spaces offline, meaning that the recording isn't available (Musk is claiming on Twitter that it's a newly discovered bug, though tons of people are assuming, as people will do, that Musk pulled the plug to get the journalists to stop talking about him).
- However, on Twitter, Calacanis tweeted what he insisted was a simple message:
- It's just so obvious to everyone: don't dox or stalk anyone.
- Someone will get hurt or worse.
- ð'Be good to each otherð'
- If you are splitting hairs on the definition of these words, or claiming it's public information, you're missing the basic human concept here: people's safety.
- But, again, this brings us right back around to the top of the story. ''It's just so obvious'' is a traditional part of this content moderation learning curve. It always seems so obvious that, ''sure, this speech is legal, but man, it seems so bad, we gotta take it down.'' In this case, it's ''don't stalk the billionaire CEO'' (which, yeah, don't do that shit).
- But this is how content moderation works. There's a reason the role is called ''Trust & Safety'' because you're trying to weigh different tradeoffs to make things trustworthy and safe. But Musk hasn't been doing that. He seems only focused on his own safety.
- And Calacanis's claim that people are ''missing the basic human concept here: people's safety'' well'... that brings me to January 6th and Twitter's decision to ban Trump. Because, you know, as Twitter explained publicly at the time and was re-revealed recently in Musk's ''Twitter Files,'' this was exactly the debate that went on inside Twitter among its executives and trust & safety bosses.
- They looked at the riot at the Capitol where people literally died, and which the then President seemed reluctant to call off, realized that there was no guarantee he wouldn't organize a follow up, decided that ''people's safety'' mattered here, and made the hard call to ban Trump. To protect people's safety.
- Now, you can criticize that decision. You can offer alternative arguments for it. But there was a rationale for it, and it's the exact same one Musk and his team are now using to justify these bans. But we're not seeing the screaming and gnashing about how this is ''against free speech'' or whatever from Musk and his supporters. We're not likely to see Musk have Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss do a breathless expose on his internal DMs while all this went down.
- That's what's hypocritical here.
- (And we won't even get into Musk going back on his other promise that they wouldn't do suspensions any more, just decreased ''reach'' for the ''bad or negative'' tweets).
- Every website that has third party content has to do moderation. Every one. It's how it works. And every website has the right to moderate how they want. That's part of their editorial discretion.
- Musk absolutely can make bad decisions. Just like the previous Twitter could (and did). But it would be nice if they fucking realized that they're doing the same damn thing, but on a much flimsier basis, and backed by utter and complete nonsense.
- I asked Calacanis about the ''public safety'' issue and the Trump decision on Twitter, and got'... a strange response.
- I am a fan of using the blocking and mute tools for almost everything you don't like at this joint.
- Which, when you think about it, is a weird fucking response. After all, he was just going on and on about how it was righteous to ban a bunch of journalists because of ''people's safety.'' But also that these problems can be solved by muting and blocking? So either he thinks Musk should have just muted and blocked all these reporters'... or'... what? It also does not actually respond to the question.
- And, once again, we're back to the same damn thing with content moderation at scale. Every decision has tons of tradeoffs. People are always going to be upset. But there are principled ways of doing it, and non-principled ways of doing it. And Elon/Jason are showing their lack of principles. They're only trying to protect themselves, and seem to feel everyone else should just use ''mute'' and ''block.''
- This post went on way longer than I initially intended it to, but there is an important postscript here. Last night, when we wrote about the banning of the @JoinMastodon account on Twitter, I actually downplayed the idea that it was about Team Musk being scared of a rapidly growing competitor. I was pretty sure it was because of the link to the @ElonJet account that was now working on Mastodon. And, that's certainly the excuse that Musk and friends are still giving.
- Buuuuut'... there are reasons to believe it's a bit more than that. Because as the evening wore on, Twitter basically started banning all links to any Mastodon server they could find. A bunch of people started posting examples. Some screenshots:
- Those were just a few of many, many examples that can be found on both Twitter and Mastodon of Twitter effectively blocking any links to more high profile Mastodon servers (it appears that smaller or individual instances are still making it through).
- Even more ridiculous, they're banning people from updating their profiles with Mastodon addresses.
- See that screenshot? It says ''Account update failed: Description is considered malware.''
- So, yeah, they're now saying that if you put your Mastodon bio in your profile, it's malware. Given that, it's a little difficult to believe that this is all just about ''public safety'' regarding Elon stalkers, and not, perhaps, a little anti-competitive behavior on the part of an increasingly desperate Elon Musk.
- Way to support free speech.
- Filed Under: content moderation, elon musk, elonjet, jason calacanis, journalists, links, mastodon, public safety, yoel rothCompanies: twitter
- FIFA rebuffs Zelensky's request to share message of peace before World Cup final | CNN
- A request by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to share a message of world peace prior to kickoff at the World Cup final on Sunday has been rebuffed by FIFA, a source told CNN.
- The source said Zelensky's office is offering to appear in a video link to fans in the stadium in Qatar, ahead of the game and was surprised by the negative response. It's unclear if Zelensky's message would be live, or taped.
- ''We thought FIFA wanted to use its platform for the greater good,'' the source said.
- However, talks between Ukraine and the sport's governing body are still underway, the source added. CNN has reached out to FIFA for comment, but it did not immediately respond.
- The request, while unorthodox, is unsurprising. Kyiv has repeatedly tried to use major world events, regardless of their theme, to keep the global spotlight on the war in Ukraine.
- Zelensky has appeared via video at everything from the Group of 20 Nations summit to the Grammys and the Cannes Film Festival. He's also done interviews and conversations with a diverse array of journalists and famous entertainers, including Sean Penn and David Letterman, employing the charm and media savvy he developed in the entertainment industry '' he was an actor before becoming a politician '' to rally support for Ukraine.
- FIFA, however, has gone to extreme length to keep political messaging out of its showcase tournament in Qatar, the first Middle Eastern nation ever to stage the event.
- Criticism of the wealthy Gulf state's treatment of LGBTQ people and migrant workers grew louder in the weeks leading up to the World Cup. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino responded with an explosive tirade shortly before the tournament began, accusing Europe and the West of hypocrisy.
- FIFA and seven European nations later came to loggerheads over the threat of sanctions for any player wearing a ''OneLove'' captain's armband during games. The accessory features a striped heart in different colors to represent all heritages, backgrounds, genders and sexual identities.
- Hours before England captain Harry Kane was scheduled to wear the armband against Iran, FIFA said any player wearing the armbands would receive a yellow card, putting them in increased danger of being sent off or banned from a later game in the tournament.
- Grant Wahl, the famed American soccer journalist who suddenly died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm during the World Cup, said in November that he was detained and briefly refused entry to a match because he was wearing a rainbow t-shirt in support of LGBTQ rights.
- At a news conference Friday, Infantino said FIFA had stopped some ''political statements'' in Qatar because it has to ''take care of everyone.''
- ''We are a global organization and we don't discriminate against anyone,'' Infantino said.
- ''We are defending values, we are defending human rights and rights of everyone at the World Cup. Those fans and the billions watching on TV, they have their own problems. They just want to watch 90 or 120 minutes without having to think about anything, but just enjoying a little moment of pleasure and joy. We have to give them a moment when they can forget about their problems and enjoy football.''
- Visa to Invest in Africa's Digital Transformation | PYMNTS.com
- Visa has pledged to invest $1 billion in Africa to accelerate digital transformation.
- The announcement was made during the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in Washington Wednesday (Dec. 14).
- Visa will use the money to scale operations, deploy new technologies and deepen collaboration with its partners in the next five years. These include merchants, governments, financial institutions (FIs), FinTechs and mobile network operators, according to a corresponding press release.
- The inclusion of mobile network operators reflects the different role Visa plays in Africa's payment ecosystem compared to the United States.
- As well as acting as a partner to banks that issue credit and debit cards, Visa's African operations require it to work alongside the continent's mobile money and alternative payment FinTechs, which use solutions including mobile wallets and virtual cards to bring digital payments to unbanked populations.
- ''Visa has been investing in Africa for several decades to grow a truly local business, and today our commitment to the continent remains as firm and unwavering as ever,'' said Visa Chairman and CEO Al Kelly in the release. ''Every day, Visa supports digital commerce and money movement in every country across the continent... We look forward to continuing to work closely with our partners to advance the financial ecosystem, accelerate digitization and to build resilient, innovative and inclusive economies that will create shared opportunity and further spur Africa's digital economy.''
- With its structural role in global transactions, Visa's investment could unlock untapped potential for payment digitization on the continent.
- Less than 50% of the adult population of Africa have made or received digital payments, and more than 40 million African merchants don't accept them, according to the release.
- With those numbers, Visa isn't the only player in global payments investing in Africa.
- In October, Mastercard partnered with nClude, an Egyptian FinTech investment platform, to accelerate digital transformation in the country.
- Shortly after that, the U.S. card company announced that it would work with Arab African International Bank (AAIB) to help drive the adoption of digital payments and digitize Egypt's financial system.
- For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.
- How Consumers Pay Online With Stored CredentialsConvenience drives some consumers to store their payment credentials with merchants, while security concerns give other customers pause. For ''How We Pay Digitally: Stored Credentials Edition,'' a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, PYMNTS surveyed 2,102 U.S. consumers to analyze consumers' dilemma and reveal how merchants can win over holdouts.
- Russia Can Finally See that Putin's 'Days Are Numbered'
- More than two decades after he came to power, President Putin's grip on the Russian people is finally starting to falter.
- The war in Ukraine has opened up a credibility gap, and for the first time many Russians no longer feel they can trust what their leader is saying to them. Combined with tough economic sanctions, funds being re-allocated to the war, and conscription drives across the country, the costs of this vainglorious conquest are becoming more and more difficult to take.
- Even loyal Russians have plenty of questions for Putin right now. And the Kremlin is running out of ways to cope with the pressure. In the past, a scripted appearance, or a half-naked staged photoshoot would be enough to get the domestic media back on side. Sometimes, they even gave independent reporters a chance to ask Putin one or two sensitive questions'--which he would quickly and vigorously dismiss.
- But every recent attempt to make Putin look like a strong and decisive leader has failed so badly'--even inside Russia'--that after nine months of devastating war in Ukraine, the Kremlin is running out of ideas. They even canceled Putin's big annual press conference for the first time in years.
- ''Putin could have ruled longer, if he did not start this war but now his days are really numbered''
- ''Russia, just like any other nation, wants to live a stable life without feeling ashamed of our Moscow leadership. Before the war Putin guaranteed us a stable life but now he tells us that life in Russia will be good only in 10 years,'' Vera Aleksandrovna, 57, a lawyer from Saint Petersburg, told The Daily Beast. ''I liked Putin before the war, my son was an IT tech, we liked the IT opportunities in Russia; but now all the brain and talent is escaping the country, my son is gone too and I cannot afford to wait for 10 more years for a good life.''
- Putin's rock-solid system is crumbling.
- Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, told The Daily Beast that we are already entering the endgame for Putin. ''Russia has obviously lost the war, which will lead to the collapse of the regime but the question is how many more people will die before that happens,'' he told The Daily Beast.
- ''Putin has never played chess, the game of rules, he played a poker game,'' Kasparov said. ''Putin is absolute evil, he has gone insane after 22 years in power; but in his bones he must understand that he cannot go on ruling Russia, when the war ends and dozens of thousands of angry soldiers return home with arms, feeling robbed.''
- Tatiana Yashina, 62, the mother of jailed opposition leader Ilya Yashin, said the last week has been a turning point in Putin's regime.
- ''Putin is falling apart,'' she told The Daily Beast. ''He is clearly lying right in front of the cameras'--with no confidence in his voice.''
- Yashina had particular reason to pay attention to Putin's state of mind because her son was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison last Friday, but the way the president has handled the fallout of his unpopular incarceration'--for telling the truth about the war in Ukraine'--has broken through to the wider population.
- Veteran Kremlin pool reporter Andrei Kolesnikov confronted Putin over Yashin's ''beastly'' sentence in a video that went viral. Yashina said: ''Shaky Putin'... lied that he did not know my son, then he lied that he did not know anything about the sentence.''
- Putin's contortions are no longer convincing his domestic audience.
- Hundreds of independent Russian and foreign journalists have left Russia during the past nine months but some of those remaining, including BBC journalists, continue to spread the word about a commander-in-chief who is losing thousands of his soldiers, as well as some of the key territories in Ukraine. Last week BBC's Russian service and the local publication Mediazona confirmed the names of 10,002 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. The real Russian death toll ''may exceed 20,000 and the total number of irretrievable losses could be as high as 90,000,'' the BBC said.
- Both independent and Kremlin-controlled polls show that Putin has lost support for his war, with less than 30 percent of the country wanting it to continue. ''Putin could have ruled longer, if he did not start this war but now his days are really numbered, he is falling apart and he is clearly aware of it,'' Yulia Galiamina, a Moscow-based opposition politician, told The Daily Beast. Galiamina has been a victim of police violence, and has been arrested multiple times but she refuses to leave Russia. Instead, she is encouraging more people to stand up to Putin.
- Galiamina leads a movement of more than 150 Russian women called Soft Power. ''Most of our women are mothers, who see the problems from the point of view of our children's future without Putin, in Russia, that is eventually going to be free.'' Galiamina and Soft Power activists have been collecting signatures of people speaking against Putin's mobilization of Russians. ''We have collected more than 500,000 signatures that we are going to send to the Kremlin, we understand our collective responsibility,'' she added.
- ''This is a dead end, his plan has failed in Ukraine''
- Putin is still backed by around 79 percent of Russians, according to recent polls, but that faith is weakening. Studies by Levada, an independent Russian think tank, show the number of Russians who believe their country is moving in the right direction has already fallen from 64 percent in October to 61 percent in November.
- Every Kremlin attempt to rebuild the image of Putin as a superman seems to provoke another avalanche of jokes online.
- Putin recorded one of his on-location Action Man clips earlier this month showing him driving over the bomb-damaged bridge to Crimea. It was supposed to show how fit and healthy he still is at the age of 70 but online commenters were more obsessed with the car he was driving. It was not one of the Russian-made Ladas he has previously promoted'--which motorists curse for ''breaking down more often than even the cheapest foreign brands'''--but a German-engineered Mercedes.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was forced to go on the record explaining that the Mercedes just happened to be on hand, and it was no indication of Putin's vehicular preferences.
- More damagingly, his jaunt into internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, now annexed by Russia, came in the same week that three explosions struck strategic airfields inside the motherland, one of them just 150 miles from Moscow. The drone attacks made Russian air defenses and the commander-in-chief look pathetic, even in the domestic media.
- Last week, the Kremlin published an image of Putin with a glass of champagne in his hand, and that immediately gave rise to many anecdotes about ''drunk Putin.''
- The prevailing mood is becoming very hard for the Kremlin to navigate.
- ''The Kremlin canceling Putin's big press conference is a sign: they realize how hopeless their situation is'--this is a dead end, his plan has failed in Ukraine,'' well-known Kremlin observer Olga Bychkova told The Daily Beast. ''They are still standing by him, since without Putin they are finished; but now they are even unable to write a script, think of questions and answers for him.''
- The latest debate among Putin's critics is whether the catastrophe in Ukraine is the fault of one man or all of Russian society. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch turned prisoner now exiled in London, suggested to Radio Liberty last week that'--while Putin took the whole country with him during the annexation of Crimea in 2014'--he is now on his own. ''The war of 2020 is purely Putin's invention; Russian society had a shock on Feb. 23,'' he said.
- The question now is how much worse is the situation going to get?
- Kasparov, an ally of Khodorkovsky, thinks there is now also an opportunity for the U.S. to drive a wedge between the president and his senior lieutenants, like Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Kremlin's security council. He says the U.S. must spell out what would happen if they did ever allow Putin to press the nuclear button. Kasparov said he hoped CIA director William Burns ''whispered something into Patrushev's ear,'' at the meeting between the security chiefs in Moscow last month.
- After years of adulation across the country, Putin is becoming more isolated by the day.
- Will The Fallout From "Qatargate" Splatter The European Commission? | ZeroHedge
- Authored by Nick Corbishley via NakedCapitalism.com,
- As the Qatargate scandal widens, questions are being asked as to whether its reverberations will reach the Commission, the EU's executive branch. Recent revelations suggest the EU's Chief Diplomat Josep Borrell could be implicated.
- Since erupting last weekend with police raids on MEPs' homes and offices in the European parliament, the Qatargate scandal has done nothing but mushroom. What began as a criminal probe into current and former MEPs and parliamentary assistants implicated in a bribery ring aimed at burnishing the public image of the current World Cup host has widened significantly '-- not only in terms of the number of people involved but also the number of organizations and third countries, which now also include Morocco.
- As the scandal grows, both the Parliament and the European Commission are locked in a frantic damage control mission. European Parliament president Roberta Metsola on Thursday (15 December) pledged to unveil a ''wide-ranging reform package'' in January, which will include measures to bolster whistleblower protections, a ban on all unofficial parliamentary friendship groups (groups of MEPs discussing relations with non-EU countries) and a review of enforcement of code of conduct rules for MEPs.
- Fallout SpreadsFor the moment almost all of the focus is understandably on the European Parliament, but questions are beginning to be asked as to whether the fallout will spread to the EU's executive branch, the European Commission. Asked whether he is worried about such an outcome, Didier Reynders, the EU Commissioner for justice, told Politico that it is ''all the time a possibility''.
- Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, herself no stranger to corruption allegations, both in her native Germany and in Brussels, said the following in a Monday morning press conference:
- The allegations against the VP of Parliament [Eva Kaili] are of the most concern, very serious. It's a question of confidence of our people in our institutions, it needs highest standards. I proposed the creation of an independent ethnics body that covers all EU institutions (in March).[1] For us it is very critical to have not only strong rules, but the same rules covering all the EU institutions, and not to allow for any exemptions.
- Von der Leyen added that the Commission is looking at its own transparency register for all logged meetings between staff and Qatari officials. That is not as comforting as it may sound given the flagrant disregard for transparency and accountability her Commission has shown in its acquisition of billions of COVID-19 vaccines.
- What's more, as the non-profit research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory notes, the Commission's 2014 transparency reforms apply only to the top 250 mostsenior officials in the Commission. Many lower level officials from among the 30,000+Commission staff regularly meet with lobbyists but they are not included within the rules.
- EU's Biggest Corruption Scandal in YearsVon der Leyen also refused to answer questions about the European Vice President Margaritis Schinas' connections with Qatar, provoking umbrage from the Brussels press corps. Margaritis, also from Greece, represented the EU at the opening ceremony of the World Cup, and has been heavily criticized for lavishing praise on the ''improving'' labor conditions in Qatar, where at least 6,500 migrants workers from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan died between 2011, the year the World Cup was awarded to the country, and 2020.
- Politico describes Qatargate as the biggest corruption scandal to hit the EU in years, though it faces a run for its money from the blossoming scandal over the Commission's deeply opaque dealings with Pfizer and other vaccine makers, which is now the subject of an investigation by the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The EU's ombudsman Emily O'Reilly branded the Commission's refusal to disclose the text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla as ''maladministration.''
- In contrast to Qatargate, that scandal has been studiously ignored by Europe's legacy media despite the staggering sums of money involved (tens of billions of dollars to date to buy up to 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccines), the number of people affected (anyone who pays taxes in the EU and felt compelled by the EU's vaccine passport rules to take a medical product they didn't want) and the seniority of those implicated, including Von der Leyen herself and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.
- Von der Leyen herself has come under fire for concealing and/or deleting records of her conversations with Bourla prior to the Commission's purchase of up to 1.8 billion vaccines. As for Bourla, he has twice refused to give testimony to a European Parliament special committee on the matter.
- Borrell in the Mix?For his part, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Josep Borrell described Qatargate ''very, very worrisome.'' But he was also at pains to emphasize that no one in the European Commission's diplomatic service, which he heads, is under investigation: ''There is nothing and no one being referred to neither from the External Action Service nor from the delegations.''
- But that may change in the coming days or weeks. Former European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, who is at the center of the bribery allegations, denies receiving the '¬1.5 million of cash found at her home and in her father's possession [2] and claims she was acting exclusively on orders from above. According to Kaili's lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, those orders came directly from EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Borrell.
- In an interview with Greek MEGA TV channel, Dimitrakopoulos said Kaili has nothing to do with bribery from Qatar.
- ''What the public opinion needs to know is that Qatar did not need to bribe Ms Kaili because she went to Qatar as a representative of the European Parliament, the speeches, the interviews she gave were after the agreement and order of the President Roberta Metsola,'' Dimitrakopoulos said.
- He added that documents prove this and explained that Kaili did not take any initiative or have an agenda.
- ''Ms Metsola sent her to Qatar, what she was going to say had Ms Metsola's approval ['...] Ms Metsola had also sent EU official Mr Roberto Bendini with her to watch all of Ms Kaili's meetings'', he explained.
- ''I am telling you the words of Ms Kaili, she was carrying out a plan that had started in 2019, High Representative Josep Borrell and Ylva Johansson [Commissioner for Home Affairs] had decided at the Commission level, to cooperate with Qatar, Kuwait and Oman,'' the lawyer added.
- For the moment, these are just leaked allegations made by the lawyer of a suspect in a very serious corruption investigation, and should be treated as such. But one thing that is clear is that Borrell, as Europe's chief diplomat, played a leading role in forging closer ties with Qatar.
- MEPs now suspect Qatar's palm-greasing may have unduly influenced negotiations on the highly lucrative EU-Qatar aviation agreement. Signed last year, the deal granted Qatar Airlines unlimited access to the EU's vast market of 450 million people while giving European airlines access to Qatar's somewhat smaller market of 2.9 million people. The first deal of its kind ever to be signed by the Commission, it was heavily criticised by major EU airlines and unions, but defended by the EU, which claimed it would provide ''opportunities for both sides.'' An EU spokesperson said on Wednesday the agreement was reached with ''full transparency.''
- In the end, Europe's desperate hunger for energy sources, which was already readily apparent even by the summer of 2021, probably played a much larger part in securing the deal than a few greased palms. On his first visit to the country as EU's chief diplomat, in September 2021, Borrell praised Qatar as a ''reliable energy partner'', which in these times, he said, is ''especially important.'' He also announced EU plans to build a fully fledged diplomatic mission in Doha this year, which was inaugurated in September.
- As previously mentioned, Morocco is also implicated in this ever-widening scandal. According to Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero, it is the country's foreign intelligence services, the DGED, that has been bribing MEPs, presumably to frustrate any resolutions in favor of Western Sahara, the resource-rich former Spanish colony it invaded and occupied in 1975. Morocco has also been accused this year of using Pegasus spyware to target the mobile phones of around 200 Spanish government officials, including the Prime Minister Pedro Sanch(C)z and then Defense Minister Margarita Robles.
- Regular readers may recall that over the last year the North African country has garnered increasing support for its ''autonomy'' plan for Western Sahara among big hitters in the EU including Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. The plan would essentially involve formalizing Morocco's permanent occupation of the resource-rich region and has already received the blessing of both Israel and the US.
- Another Toothless Ethics BodyFor the moment, it is far from clear just how far this burgeoning scandal will reach. One thing that is clear is that the reputational damage will be large and lasting. The European Union's ability to lecture the misbehaving governments of Member States and third-party countries on how to govern will be further diminished.
- As Hungary's Victor Orban said in a video uploaded to his Facebook page, ''It is time that we drain the swamp here in Brussels.''
- And he is right. EU institutions need to get their house in order once and for all, and fast. And that is unlikely to happen. The EU ombudsman Emily O'Reilly said this week that Von der Leyen's proposed plan for a new ethics body is likely to end up as ''something with no teeth, something that will possibly sit there passively, wait for complaints to come in.''
- What the body really needs, O'Reilly said, is investigatory and sanctions powers. But that might actually threaten to derail the gravy train Brussels has become.
- And the problem is not just illegal cash payments stuffed away in paper bags and briefcases; it is the vast lobbying apparatus that has built up in Brussels, which is now the second largest lobbying capital in the world after Washington. As in Washington, lobbying reaches into just about every aspect of governance. In its 2015 report, CEO reported that lobbyists representing businesses and trade associations made up 75% of all high-level Commission lobby meetings and more than 80% in certain areas such as financial regulation or the internal market.
- The inevitable result, as in Washington, is that policies are made almost exclusively in the service of vested corporate interests. Sometimes corporate lobbies even draft the EU's legislation. This is the business model of modern governance.
- Lastly, if Borrell is indeed caught up in this burgeoning scandal and, by some miracle, loses his job, it would be no great loss to the EU's 450 million citizens. He is the least diplomatic of diplomats. Just about every time he speaks, whether on the wonders of European colonialism or the vast untamed jungle that lies beyond Europe's borders, damage is inflicted on the EU's relations with some other part of the world. Since long before the Ukraine conflict he has played a leading role in escalating tensions with Russia, the EU's biggest neighbor and energy supplier.
- He is also no stranger to scandal, having been convicted, in 2018, of insider trading in Spain. That resulted in him being placed on the Spanish market regulator's blacklist. The ensuing scandal triggered calls for his resignation as Spain's then-Foreign Minister. But he resisted those calls and in 2020 was bumped up to the European Commission, as so often happens with scandal-tarnished domestic politicians in the EU.
- Iedereen in Europa gaat betalen voor CO2-uitstoot
- NOS Nieuws ' vandaag, 09:07 ' Aangepast vandaag, 14:58
- De kogel is vannacht na lang onderhandelen door de kerk gegaan: inwoners van de Europese Unie moeten gaan betalen voor de broeikasgassen die ze uitstoten. Dat betekent dat er bij elke tankbeurt en als de verwarming wordt aangezet mee moet worden betaald vanwege de schadelijke stoffen die daardoor vrijkomen.
- Mensen die hun huis goed isoleren, een warmtepomp aanschaffen of overstappen op een elektrische auto kunnen subsidie krijgen uit een speciaal fonds. Ook komt er geld voor mensen die minder te besteden hebben, ook als gevolg van de inflatie. In dat fonds is ruim 86 miljard euro beschikbaar.
- CO2-uitstoot moet meer dan halveren
- De maatregelen maken deel uit van een pakket aan klimaatwetten. Voor 2030 moet de CO2-uitstoot met 55 procent naar beneden. De Europese industrie, die dat deels al moet doen, krijgt te maken met hogere uitstootkosten, en bedrijven van buiten Europa gaan aan de grens betalen voor hun uitstoot. Het geld dat hiermee wordt opgehaald kan worden besteed aan klimaatplannen.
- Burgers en bedrijven moeten gaan betalen voor de CO2 uit de uitlaat en de schoorsteen. Dat gaat via energiebedrijven en pompstations. Zij moeten betalen voor emissierechten en rekenen de kosten vervolgens door aan de klant die komt tanken of de gaskachel aanzet.
- "Ik ben blij dat er een gebalanceerd akkoord is bereikt op het grootste klimaatwetgevingspakket in de EU ooit", zegt Europarlementarir Esther de Lange (CDA). Ze was een van de onderhandelaars en verantwoordelijk voor de co¶rdinatie van de Green Deal en hoofdonderhandelaar op het Sociaal Klimaatfonds.
- "Met deze deal brengen we de uitstoot in Europa drastisch naar beneden, maar dan wel op een sociaal verantwoorde manier zonder de Europese industrie de das om te doen. De invoering van ETS voor transport en gebouwen is nodig om onze klimaatdoelen te halen. Dit kan niet zonder sociale maatregelen om mensen te helpen deze transitie te maken. Europese bedrijven en gezinnen worden namelijk al geconfronteerd met uitzonderlijk hoge energieprijzen."
- De afgelopen dagen was er overleg over drie grote klimaatplannen, die op elkaar moesten worden afgestemd: CBAM, ETS en het Sociaal Klimaatfonds.
- In Europa mogen bedrijven in de zware industrie alleen uitstoten waar ze CO2-certificaten voor hebben . Dit heet het emissiehandelssysteem ETS (zie de afbeelding hieronder). Elk jaar bepaalt de EU hoeveel van die zogeheten CO2-certificaten er verdeeld mogen worden onder de industrie. De hoeveelheid rechten die wordt verdeeld wordt elk jaar minder, zodat de Europese uitstoot naar beneden gaat.
- Bedrijven mogen handelen met die rechten, vandaar de naam emissiehandelssysteem. Produceert een bedrijf zuinig, dan kan dat bedrijf de overige certificaten verkopen aan vervuilende bedrijven die juist extra rechten nodig hebben. Zuiniger bedrijven zijn daarmee voordeliger uit en zo is er een financile prikkel om duurzaam te gaan produceren.
- De angst bestond wel dat door dit systeem bedrijven uit Europa zouden wegtrekken. Doordat bedrijven in Europa extra moeten betalen voor hun uitstoot, zijn hun producten duurder dan die van bedrijven van buiten Europa. Door deze oneerlijke concurrentie zouden bedrijven ervoor kunnen kiezen om zich buiten Europa te vestigen. Daarom kreeg de industrie een deel van zijn rechten gratis en ontving ze subsidies, waarmee de financile prikkel om te verduurzamen deels teniet werd gedaan.
- Daar heeft de EU een oplossing voor bedacht: het CBAM (zie afbeelding hieronder). Zodra vervuilende bedrijven van buiten Europa hun spullen in Europa willen verkopen, betalen ze aan de grens voor hun CO2-uitstoot.
- Een aantal jaren geleden becijferde Milieu Centraal dat Nederlanders verantwoordelijk zijn voor drie keer zo veel CO2-uitstoot als een gemiddelde wereldburger.
- De fossiele brandstoffen olie en aardgas zijn bij verbranding de grootste CO2-uitstoters, vooral als ze verstookt worden om elektriciteit te produceren.
- De plannen gaan zoals het er nu uitziet in 2027 in, het Sociaal Klimaatfonds een jaar eerder. Verwacht wordt dat het voor burgers om kleine bedragen gaat. Zo zal een tankbeurt, zegt een woordvoerder, gemiddeld niet meer dan 10 eurocent duurder worden zo wordt verwacht. De plannen zijn gemaakt voor de energiecrisis.
- Poland grenade incident: Police chief confirms unusual Ukrainian gift - BBC News
- Image source, Getty ImagesBy Adam Easton
- Poland's highest ranking police officer has confirmed to local media that he accidentally set off a grenade launcher given to him as a gift by Ukraine.
- Jaroslaw Szymczyk suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after opening the present at his Warsaw offices.
- A civilian member of staff was also hurt.
- General Szymczyk has now spoken to a Polish broadcaster about the unusual incident - the first time specific details have been given.
- He told RMF FM radio he received the present during his recent visit to Ukraine.
- "When I was moving the used grenade launchers, which were gifts from the Ukrainians, there was an explosion," General Szymczyk told the broadcaster. "The explosion was powerful - the force of the impact went through the floor and damaged the ceiling."
- The BBC has requested confirmation of the facts in the General's interview from Polish police but has yet to receive a response.
- The only official information made available so far about Wednesday's incident was a brief statement from Poland's interior ministry, which said that one of the gifts the police chief was given by a senior Ukrainian official during a working visit to Ukraine on December 11-12 had exploded. The ministry did not say what the gift was.
- Kyiv has not yet made a public statement on the incident.
- RMF FM's report also cited anonymous sources, which said the two armour-penetrating grenade launchers were supposed to be an "unusual war gift" from the Ukrainians.
- The report claims the Ukrainians said both launchers had already been used and did not contain explosives, which meant they could be taken across the border back to Poland. One of them is understood to have been turned into a loudspeaker for playing music.
- Following reports of Wednesday's incident, opposition politicians have questioned General Szymczyk's suitability to lead the police force.
- Tomasz Siemoniak, a former defence minister and current deputy leader of the main opposition party, Civic Platform, wrote on Twitter that the incident is "indefensible".
- "Heads must roll of those responsible for this situation and endangering life. And the commander has lost his capacity to lead the police."
- Meanwhile, mocking videos and images have appeared on social media, all on the theme of explosive mishaps.
- "It is true we will not win the World Cup but thanks to the commander @PolishPolice we are favourite for the Darwin award," Poland's former foreign minister and current MEP, Radoslaw Sikorski, tweeted in reference to the football competition being held in Qatar.
- Fusion confusion - American Thinker
- '); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270282082-0'); }); }The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore Lab (LLL) in Northern California has recently gotten a lot of attention. It was just announced that they finally fused some hydrogen atoms and got more energy out than they put in '-- a net positive result. Drew Magary, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, throws a little cold water on the event by adding that the lasers causing the fusion reaction were powered by electricity generated at way less than perfect efficiency.
- '); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609268089992-0'); }); }Throwing more cold water, I was told by someone who worked on the facility in question that they already had a net positive event about fifteen years ago. I suggested that they might be tooting their horn now in order to get a bump in funding. He agreed.
- What's being left out of the discussion is the commercial viability of the whole concept. Some years ago, Scientific American ran an article that compared nuclear power generation to that from natural gas. Building a natural gas generating station is fairly cheap, leaving the cost of fuel as the primary expense for producing electricity. A nuclear plant is particularly expensive to build '-- while the cost of enriched uranium is insignificant when calculating the bottom line. The amortization of the construction cost over the life span of the facility is the primary expense for nuclear...which is still fairly cost-competitive with gas, coal, and hydro.
- This brings us to the possibly immense cost of building a fusion power plant. Magary also mentions the continuing twenty-year time horizon reset. When projecting the real-world implementation of fusion energy, the goal posts are constantly being moved farther and farther away. Now that we know that controlled fusion is possible, making it economically feasible is the true challenge. This is roughly similar to the medieval quest for the philosophers' stone, where the serious scientists of the day were working feverishly to find the right combination of substances to make gold out of lead and achieve eternal life.
- McKinsey affair is sapping Emmanuel Macron like a 'slow poison'
- When Emmanuel Macron learned of an inquiry into allegations a consultancy firm won lucrative government contracts after helping with his presidential election campaigns, he brushed it off with a Gallic shrug and sniffed: ''I have nothing to fear.''
- Yet despite his sang-froid, the ''McKinsey affair'' is sapping the French president like a ''slow poison'', according to a top analyst.
- The criminal probe by anti-sleaze prosecutors kicked up a notch this week when the headquarters of Mr Macron's Renaissance party were searched, along with McKinsey's Paris offices.
- The affair has been another hammer blow for McKinsey, which has been reeling from a string of scandals - from South Africa, where the firm faces charges related to the looting of the state rail freight monopoly, to Britain.
- The recent bombshell book. When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm, alleged that McKinsey had ''picked pockets on both sides of the NHS privatisation row'' by cashing in on reversing some of the NHS reforms that the firm had helped to craft.
- During the Covid pandemic, ''Boris Johnson entrusted the test-and-trace effort to a former McKinsey consultant Dido Harding, now Baroness Harding of Winscombe.
- ''She and the country's top health officials turned to private companies, not the NHS, to run the programme. McKinsey alone charged £563,400 to provide a ''vision, purpose and narrative'' of the Harding-led programme. It was a disaster,'' they wrote.
- In France, the Macron administration's massive recourse to consultants has struck a nerve among swathes of the French electorate, which suspect him of privatisation by stealth and rolling over to US business interests.
- 'President-turned-spokesman for private interests'France's army of senior civil servants has been left feeling dispossessed by outsiders many see as a bunch of profiteers.
- A report published by a French Senate committee in March showed that the government had paid private consultants '¬2.4 billion for reports and advice since 2018 and that the amount spent had doubled in four years. McKinsey was among the main beneficiaries, earning, for example, '¬957,674 to advise on a pension reform plan that was ultimately shelved and '¬496,800 to outline the ''future of teaching'' for the education ministry.
- The committee noted that McKinsey had paid no corporate tax in France since 2011, adding that it had had revenues of '¬329 million there in 2020. The consultancy denied tax avoidance.
- Mr Macron rejected allegations of illicit collusion with the group when the scandal erupted during his re-election campaign. ''People had the impression that there were tricks going on,'' he said. ''It's false.''
- But opponents seized on it with the National Rally's Jordan Bardella slamming Mr Macron as a ''president-turned-spokesman for private interests''. Leftist MP Cl(C)mentine Autin derided his ''big love-in with business''.
- The scandal deepened when Le Monde reported that at least ten of McKinsey's consultants had worked on Mr Macron's 2017 manifesto. McKinsey is alleged to have helped him again when he won re-election this year.
- Initially, prosecutors opened an inquiry into McKinsey's tax affairs in France. Then last month, the probe widened to determine whether Mr Macron ensured the firm received government contracts as recompense for its help.
- This week, when French national financial prosecutors announced that they had searched the headquarters of Mr Macron's Renaissance party, a party spokesman responded: ''It's normal for the judiciary to investigate freely and independently to shed all the light on this subject.''
- The party, he added, naturally remained at prosecutors' disposal ''to provide all useful information on the campaigns''.
- Despite his party's calm claims of transparency, the allegations are particularly damaging because Mr Macron came to power in 2017 promising to clean up politics after the campaign of Fran§ois Fillon, his main rival, was soiled by sleaze.
- 'We've got to avoid conflict of interest'Mr Macron has immunity from prosecution as long as he is in office, but faces the prospect of being questioned by police and charged when he steps down in 2027.
- Bruno Le Maire, France's finance minister, acknowledged last month that there had been ''excesses'' with the use of consulting contracts in the past, but they had since been ''corrected''.
- However, when senators from across the political spectrum voted earlier this month in favour of an amendment proposing 19 measures to improve ''transparency'' in using such consultancies, they got precious little response from the Macron camp.
- ''The Macron government doesn't appear in a hurry to look at our proposals,'' conservative Arnaud Bazin, head of the senatorial committee that unleashed the controversy, told The Telegraph.
- ''During our inquiry, we found that nobody in government was able to give us an overall figure for how much was spent (on consultancies) so we had to do the work.
- ''French society has the right to know what these projects are, why they were commissioned, how much they cost and how they were evaluated. Because we found that some that were poor ended up costing a fortune,'' he said.
- Eliane Assassi, a Communist senator also on the committee, said France had to put an end to ''pantouflage'', the Gallic term for the revolving door practice whereby ''slippered'' high-level French civil servants shuffle to-and-fro between the public and private sector.
- A case in point, she said, was the current head of the cole Polytechnique - France's top public engineering school - whose president, Eric Labaye, used to be on the board of McKinsey.
- ''We've got to avoid conflict of interest,'' she told The Telegraph.
- ''The idea is not to ban the use of private consultants but to create checks and to ensure that nobody in the state administration can do the job.''
- 'A growing malaise in the deep state'Luc Rouban, a sociologist at CNRS-Sciences Po, said: ''Macronism has blurred the lines between the public and private sector but that doesn't wash among many in France. It is fuelling populist critics - both on the hard-Left and hard-Right. - who say there's no point in voting because we don't know who's taking the decisions anymore.
- ''It also fuels the sense that under the influence of the private sector, the government is no longer able to anticipate problems we are seeing in hospitals and nuclear energy, for example.
- ''I've spoken to senior French civil servants who are furious and say: 'We have the experience and savoir-faire. If all these poxy private consultancies do is come in, take our reports, add a bit and ask for '¬300,000, what's the point?'''
- ''There is a growing malaise in the deep state,'' he said.
- Fr(C)d(C)ric Dabi, head of polling firm IFOP, agreed that recourse to the private sector is creating a ''real danger'' for Mr Macron. He pointed to two ''grievances'' the French have expressed in polls.
- ''The first is to say: 'I pay lots of tax and the service I receive is poor quality','' he told Le Monde.
- ''The second is to say: 'France is a country with a high standard of living but I can't make ends meet'. The incomprehension can be summed up by the phrase: 'Where is my money going?'.''
- For the Macron administration, ''this is a slow poison''.
- In a statement, Mckinsey said: "We can confirm that on December 13, an investigating magistrate visited McKinsey's Paris office. McKinsey continues to cooperate fully with the French public authorities, as has always been the case.''
- McKinsey & Company is a ''nonpartisan, apolitical company that complies with all obligations in the countries where it operates'', it added.
- Shadowy US Spy Firm Promises To Surveil Crypto Users For The Highest Bidder | ZeroHedge
- Authored by Kit Klatenberg via MintPressNews.com,
- Leaked files reviewed by MintPress expose how intelligence services the world over can track cryptocurrency transactions to their source and therefore identify users by monitoring the movements of smartphone and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, such as Amazon Echo. The contents comprehensively detonate the myth of crypto anonymity, and have grave implications for individuals and states seeking to shield their financial activity from the prying eyes of hostile governments and authorities.
- The documents are among a trove related to the secret operations of Anomaly 6, a shadowy private spying firm founded by a pair of U.S. military intelligence veterans.
- The company covertly embeds software development kits, or SDKs, in hundreds of popular apps, then slices through layers of ''anonymized'' data in order to uncover sensitive information about any individual it chooses anywhere on Earth, at any time. In all, Anomaly 6 can simultaneously monitor roughly three billion smartphone devices '' equivalent to a fifth of the world's total population '' in real-time.
- Having previously hawked its wares to U.S. Special Operations Command, as this journalist revealed on December 6, Anomaly 6 is now using British private military company Prevail Partners '' heavily involved in the West's proxy war in Ukraine '' to market and sell its product to a variety of Western military, security, and intelligence agencies the world over. This is despite the company's own founders fearing its global dragnet could be completely illegal under national and international data protection regimes.
- The company's international surveillance reach could be more sweeping '' and invasive '' than even that of the C.I.A. and N.S.A. MintPress can reveal individuals, organizations, and states seeking to bypass traditional financial structures and systems loom prominently in Anomaly 6's mephitic crosshairs, and spying on their transactions is a pivotal component of its sales pitch to government and private clients. This Orwellian technology leaves cryptocurrency users the world over nowhere to hide.
- WHO WATCHES THE WATCHERS?Ever since Bitcoin's launch in 2009, anonymity has been an absolutely fundamental tenet of cryptocurrency. The ability to make and receive payments incognito through a secure, decentralized platform without needing to register a named bank account, or even interact with established financial gatekeepers at any stage, was and remains a unique selling point for the asset.
- The principle of anonymity is taken so seriously by crypto practitioners and aficionados alike that industry platforms are graded according to their levels of privacy. Many crypto entrepreneurs, some of whom manage hundreds of millions of dollars for clients, conduct business without ever disclosing their names, or any identifying information at all. Venture capital firms have even invested vast sums in crypto ventures with wholly pseudonymous founders, an unprecedented sectoral development.
- Anomaly Six's website features no other data but the company name, contact and location
- In recent years, however, there have been several clear indications that cryptocurrency anonymity is under significant threat, and indeed could already have been mortally compromised by the U.S. intelligence apparatus. In June 2021, it was revealed that the F.B.I. had successfully traced and recovered $2.3 million in Bitcoin extorted by hackers from Colonial Pipeline in a ransomware attack, which had shut down the company's computer systems, causing fuel shortages and a spike in gas prices.
- U.S. officials declined to reveal how they tracked where the ill-gotten funds had ended up, and identified the ultimate owners of 23 separate cryptocurrency accounts belonging to DarkSide, the hacking collective responsible for the cyberattack, although public statements by C.I.A. director William Burns in December that year may provide a clue. Speaking at a Wall Street Journal summit, he acknowledged that his Agency was engaged in ''a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency.''
- ''This is something I inherited. My predecessor had started this,'' he said. ''Trying to look at second- and third-order consequences as well and helping with our colleagues in other parts of the U.S. government to provide solid intelligence on what we're seeing as well.''
- While it's certainly true that cryptocurrency's anonymity is attractive to criminal elements and terrorist groups, there are a wide variety of entirely legitimate reasons for seeking privacy in financial transactions, and preventing regulators, big banks, and governments from keeping an eye on what one is doing.
- For example, political and social movements of every stripe in all corners of the globe have embraced the asset, as they can be financially supported from overseas without any paper trail being left at either end. In turn, activists can send money to each other and make purchases in secret, and organize events and construct local and international support networks, leaving authorities none the wiser.
- In Venezuela, cryptocurrency has provided vital respite to an entire country, as crippling U.S.-led sanctions have in recent years deprived both its government and citizens of access to, and the ability to buy, even basic necessities, including food and medicine. The national currency's value reduced to almost zero, crypto transactions offer a literal lifeline by which goods and services can be accessed, and import and export restrictions imposed by Washington circumvented.
- 'PATTERNS OF LIFE' AND 'BED DOWN LOCATIONS'A February 2021 U.N. special rapporteur report on the impact of American sanctions on Venezuela ruled they were ''collective punishment,'' and Caracas lived on just 1% of its pre-sanctions income. The previous March, Alfred de Zayas, formerly an independent expert for the United Nations Human Rights Council, calculated that over 100,000 Venezuelans had died as a result of the restrictions.
- Despite this monstrous human toll, and countless calls from prominent rights groups and international institutions to end the suffering, Washington rigidly enforces the sanctions regime, and seeks to harshly punish any individual or organization helping Caracas skirt restrictions. While measures have eased slightly following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Stateside prosecution of Colombian businessman Alex Saab, abducted from Cape Verde in October 2020, for selling food to the Venezuelan government is ongoing.
- Saab could be soon joined in the dock, if Anomaly 6 has anything to do with it. One of the company's leaked sales presentations provides several case studies showing how its spying technology can be used by security and intelligence services to ''derive understanding of the actions of individuals associated with sanctions violations.''
- By homing in on the location of the Venezuelan government's sanctioned cryptocurrency exchange, the National Superintendence of Cryptoactives and Related Activities (Sunacrip), which manages all crypto activities in the country, Anomaly 6 identified two specific IoT devices ''which show the value of the A6 dataset in this endeavor.''
- Scouring data generated at the site back to January 1, 2020, Anomaly 6 found thousands of signals emitted by IoT devices and smartphones. From there, it ''built out the pattern of life for the devices in that search'' '' in other words, the locations device owners traveled to and from, when, and where they lived. In all, these devices produced ''over 593,374 geographic points of reference'', in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela.
- From this amorphous corpus, Anomaly 6 identified one device with ''a unique travel pattern which makes it worth further investigation.'' In particular, its movements indicated a ''very well-defined pattern of life in and around Caracas'' '' although the company professed to be ''much more interested in its travel to the Colombian border in the Cºcuta/San Antonio del Tchira border area.''
- That Anomaly 6 was able to track this device while in flight was said to highlight a ''unique aspect'' of its dataset. The device ''took a less than seven hour trip from Caracas to San Antonio del Tchira (Juan Vicente G"mez International Airport) which landed (or was on final approach at 0923 on 23 Feb).''
- ''With less than 10 flights a day on average to this airport (pre-Covid 19), it would not be difficult to ascertain a short list of personalities of interest with access to Venezuelan passenger name records,'' Anomaly 6 bragged. ''Additionally, we can see that this device transits to the border crossing locations in the short time it was located in the area.''
- This border area was of note for Anomaly 6 as, ''according to open source reporting, historically, Venezuelans have used border areas for cash pickup/drops to skirt sanctions put in place by the international community.'' Such activities ''provide access to hard currency to actors and governments which have been cut off from U.S. dollar trading platforms.''
- A ''second device of interest'' was found to have traveled to Medelln, Colombia, and its ''pattern of life'' indicated its owner had ''connections to the financial/banking environment.''
- ''Both of these devices exhibit [patterns of life] that warrant further exploration, especially when combined with fact [sic] they have been located at the Sunacrip HQ,'' Anomaly 6 concluded. ''Further investigation can find bed down locations as well as other insights for business locations, international travel, and other device co-location.''
- THE DEVIL TURNS AROUNDDue to a highly successful mainstream media campaign over many years to demonize the government of Venezuela, and by extension its people, it is likely some American citizens will be entirely unsympathetic to Caracas' plight, and approve of efforts to prevent the state bypassing sanctions. However, the ease with which Anomaly 6's tools of mass surveillance could be domestically deployed, and the likelihood they already have, should give them pause.
- As I revealed in my initial report, Anomaly 6 can identify U.S. smartphone users by name, address and travel history. Another leaked sales presentation details how by linking a single anonymous individual's smartphone signal recorded in North Korea to a network of hotels, schools, and other sites, the company determined with pinpoint accuracy their identity, marital status, where they worked and lived, the names of their children and the schools and universities at which they study, and more.
- Such capabilities would no doubt be of much interest to the C.I.A. and N.S.A. '' both of which are in theory prohibited from spying on U.S. citizens, but have been recurrently embroiled in controversy for engaging in such activity.
- Concerningly, it has been revealed that the C.I.A. for many years sought to bulk collect international financial data in service of tracking the Islamic State's funding sources, and incidentally vacuumed up voluminous quantities of sensitive information on U.S. citizens in the process.
- Heavily redacted records related to the connivance were unearthed due to pressure from senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Upon reviewing the material, they wrote to U.S. Director of Intelligence Avril Haines, righteously admonishing the C.I.A. for brazenly ignoring longstanding constitutional checks and balances on the Agency's domestic activities.
- ''[The C.I.A.] has done so entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes with FISA collection,'' they fulminated.
- Anomaly 6's services, of course, mean the C.I.A. and N.S.A. can dodge restrictions at home, without fear of landing in hot water. Other agencies permitted to monitor Americans can likewise now do so without a warrant too. And there is no reason to believe that its spying would be restricted to financial transactions, either
- ''Anomaly 6 data can be used in multiple use cases to support cyber intelligence and operational use end states,'' the leaked crypto sales deck declares. ''By utilizing multiple targeting methodologies, this data can support the building of a far superior intelligence picture that enables clients to move towards actionable end states. Fusing A6 data with other classified and unclassified data sets places the client at the forefront of the cyber mission space.''
- Other leaked Anomaly 6 files openly discuss how its technology is ripe for both ''counterintelligence'' and ''source development'' purposes, and it's not merely U.S. citizens in the firing line. The firm boasts of having spied on the movements of ''devices from other friendly countries,'' including members of the Five Eyes global spying network, and France and Germany.
- In other words, Anomaly 6 turns every citizen on Earth into a potential ''person of interest'' to intelligence agencies, and thus a target for recruitment, surveillance, harassment, and much, much worse, the most intimate details of their private lives easily accessible by shady actors with a few clicks of a button, and without their knowledge or consent.
- While the mainstream media is yet to acknowledge the leak of the company's sensitive internal papers, this has all the makings of an Edward Snowden-level international scandal of historic proportions. If Anomaly 6 is to be successfully stopped in its tracks, and Western intelligence agencies prevented from egregiously violating the privacy of innumerable individuals without compunction or oversight, it will require concerted collective action from concerned citizens worldwide.
- What Comes Next for the Most Empty Downtown in America - The New York Times
- The coffee rush. The lunch rush. The columns of headphone-equipped tech workers rushing in and out of train stations. The lanyard-wearing visitors who crowded the sidewalks when a big conference was in town.
- There was a time three years ago when a walk through downtown San Francisco was a picture of what it meant for a city to be economically successful. Take the five-minute jaunt from the office building at 140 New Montgomery Street to a line-out-the-door salad shop nearby.
- The 26-story building, an Art Deco landmark that was once the tallest in the city, began its life as the headquarters for the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company. Decades later, it served as the home of the local search company Yelp. The nearby salad store was part of a fast-growing chain called Mixt.
- Yelp and Mixt had little more than proximity in common, which at that time was enough. Yelp was an idea that became billions of dollars in value on the internet. Mixt was a booming business serving lunchtime salads to the workers who traveled on electrified trains and skateboards to their jobs in downtown cubicles.
- Their virtuous cycle of nearness, of new ideas becoming new companies, feeding other ideas that become other companies, was the template for urban growth. Businesses like Yelp took root in the high-energy, high-density city; chains like Mixt flourished alongside them as their workers ventured out for lunch. As downtowns have emptied out, their once-symbiotic relationship is coming undone.
- ''This area was always packed with people,'' recalled Maria Cerros-Mercado, a Mixt manager who built her career in food service downtown. ''People would get off the BART, buy coffee, buy this, buy that. There was always just so much walking.''
- Today San Francisco has what is perhaps the most deserted major downtown in America. On any given week, office buildings are at about 40 percent of their prepandemic occupancy, while the vacancy rate has jumped to 24 percent from 5 percent since 2019. Occupancy of the city's offices is roughly 7 percentage points below that of those in the average major American city, according to Kastle, the building security firm.
- Image Yelp had its offices in this 26-story building at 140 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco but left after the pandemic began.More ominous for the city is that its downtown business district '-- the bedrock of its economy and tax base '-- revolves around a technology industry that is uniquely equipped and enthusiastic about letting workers stay home indefinitely. In the space of a few months, Jeremy Stoppelman, the chief executive of Yelp, went from running a company that was rooted in the city to vacating Yelp's longtime headquarters and allowing its roughly 4,400 employees to work from anywhere in their country.
- ''I feel like I've seen the future,'' he said.
- Decisions like that, played out across thousands of remote and hybrid work arrangements, have forced office owners and the businesses that rely on them to figure out what's next. This has made the San Francisco area something of a test case in the multibillion-dollar question of what the nation's central business districts will look like when an increased amount of business is done at home.
- ''Imagine a forest where an entire species suddenly disappears,'' said Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies urban real estate. ''It disrupts the whole ecosystem and produces a lot of chaos. The same thing is happening in downtowns.''
- The city's chief economist, Ted Egan, has warned about a looming loss of tax revenue as vacancies pile up. Brokers have tried to counter that narrative by talking up a ''flight to quality'' in which companies upgrade to higher-end space. Business groups and city leaders hope to recast the urban core as a more residential neighborhood built around people as well as businesses but leave out that office rents would probably have to plunge for those plans to be viable.
- Below the surface of spin is a downtown that is trying to adapt to what amounts to a three-day workweek. During a recent lunch at a Mixt location in the financial district, the company's chief executive, Leslie Silverglide, pointed to the line of badge-holding workers and competition for outdoor tables.
- It was also, she noted, a Wednesday '-- what passes for rush hour. On Wednesdays, offices in San Francisco are at roughly 50 percent of their prepandemic levels; on Fridays, they're not even at 30 percent.
- Image A park in downtown San Francisco. The city's chief economist, Ted Egan, has warned about a looming loss of tax revenue as vacancies pile up.The lunchtime business downtown is not, and may never be, what it used to be. But if workers aren't going to return to buying their $17 salads downtown, Mixt will follow them home.
- Which is why on a recent Wednesday morning, one of Mixt's managers, Ms. Cerros-Mercado, 35, stood on a mostly empty sidewalk waiting for an Uber (another company that told most of its employees they can work half their time from home).
- Ms. Cerros-Mercado lives in San Francisco and used to walk downtown for work but now manages a Mixt branch in Mill Valley, a Marin County suburb that has 14,000 people and $2 million starter homes.
- Many of the former office workers who live there have yet to return downtown en masse, but their purchases over the past three years have shown that they still want downtown perks and services like a freshly prepared lunch. Mixt opened the Mill Valley location this year as part of a push to generate more business in residential neighborhoods and suburbs.
- Just before 7:30 a.m. on that recent Wednesday, Ms. Cerros-Mercado watched her Uber pull up outside a downtown Whole Foods so she could start her commute to the suburbs. It proceeded along the sleepy streets where she used to work '-- past coffee-shops and dim sum restaurants, past the glass towers and the boarded-up storefronts '-- and sped across the Golden Gate Bridge toward Marin.
- The Creative ClassAs it happens, Yelp was inspired by a flu.
- Mr. Stoppelman, 45, contracted the virus shortly after returning to the Bay Area from business school. This was in 2004, back when the internet had enough information that you could find something about anything, yet was also still new enough that the information was rarely more detailed than what you could find in the Yellow Pages. When Mr. Stoppelman went online to find a doctor and was confronted by a bunch of phone and suite numbers but little about the actual physicians, it gave him an idea.
- Image Jeremy Stoppelman, chief executive of Yelp, decided to allow its 4,400 employees to work from anywhere in the country. Credit... Aaron Wojack for The New York Times Yelp began as a word-of-mouth email service before morphing into the local review and directory site that is now worth about $2 billion. That he had a good idea was less important to the company's success than the Bay Area's tech ecosystem '-- the experience and social connections Mr. Stoppelman gained from his previous job at PayPal helped him procure $1 million in start-up funding.
- Another factor, Mr. Stoppelman said, was a crucial decision, unusual at the time, to locate the company in a San Francisco office building instead of a Silicon Valley office park.
- ''I'm not sure that Yelp would have succeeded if we weren't in the city,'' he said. ''When you're in a city, there's lots of places you might go, and an efficient way to sort through the possibilities is important. Yelp was a killer app for the city.''
- San Francisco is about 40 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley, which for the most part consists of low-slung suburban cities that sit along U.S. 101 and have sprawling office campuses surrounded by acres of parking. Until fairly recently, however, the city was considered a subpar place for start-ups.
- The downtown business district had historically revolved around banks and insurance companies. And the wave of tech companies that sprouted up in San Francisco during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s became symbols of that period's delusions when they went out of business during the dot-com bust. Mr. Stoppelman said the surplus of fly-by-night companies gave credence to a joke that circulated around PayPal: Start-ups do better in the suburbs because their workers have less to do outside the office.
- But the bust provided an opportunity in the form of cheap office space that proliferated through the city's South of Market neighborhood, which sits next to the financial district. Besides, for a new generation of start-up founders like Mr. Stoppelman, who was in his 20s and single when Yelp started, the city just seemed more fun.
- In San Francisco, and around the country, a growing preference for urban living was showing up in surveys, condo prices and pour-over coffee shops. Economists like Edward Glaeser at Harvard and Richard Florida at the University of Toronto distilled this movement into a sort of new urban theory that said cities were benefiting from several converging trends, including a more tech-driven economy, plunging crime rates and the bubble of young millennials entering the work force.
- Image Downtown San Francisco is trying to adapt to what amounts to a three-day workweek. On Wednesdays, offices are at 50 percent of their prepandemic levels; on Fridays, they're not even at 30 percent.In his 2002 book, ''Rise of the Creative Class,'' Mr. Florida posited that instead of seeking lower taxes and operating costs or locating near suburban enclaves with good schools, companies like Yelp were sprouting in cities rich with the design and engineering workers their businesses needed to grow. He parlayed the book's success into a consulting firm, the Creative Class Group, which advises cities on strategies for attracting young workers.
- The advice '-- find educated workers, create dense fun neighborhoods and embrace social liberalism '-- could be reduced, effectively, to ''become more like San Francisco.''
- An irony of San Francisco's emerging status as an economic bellwether was that until the Great Recession, when a plunge in tax revenue prompted the local government to go scrambling for ways to stimulate growth, the city had made no special effort to attract tech companies. In the wake of the downturn, however, the city altered its tax code to be more welcoming to start-ups, while office owners started offering the shorter leases start-ups desire and open floor plans that allow companies to cram more people together.
- Less than a decade later, a city that was never more than a Silicon Valley satellite was the epicenter of a new boom, with companies like Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Dropbox, Reddit and Airbnb all setting up inside the city limits. And the employees who worked there needed lunch.
- Ms. Cerros-Mercado, who grew up in the city, watched this unfold while building her career at Specialty's, a local cafe and sandwich chain known for its giant cookies. She started working there for about $10 an hour and regarded it as a stopping off point that would help support her children as she went through college, with the hopes that she would later go to nursing school.
- But she came to like it and rose from being a cashier to a kitchen manager and then general manager who made $80,000 with time off, along with dental and health benefits. The main location where she worked was downtown, next to a Mixt restaurant whose lines spilled onto the street.
- The Creative Class and Its Discontents Image Empty seats at a restaurant in downtown San Francisco.For the optimized office worker looking for the trifecta of fast, healthy and filling, few meals are more efficient than a pile of veggies and some dressing swirled with tofu or grilled chicken. Unfortunately, the aspirations of a salad are often dashed by the difficulty of making one that is actually good. The ingredients come from every corner of the supermarket, and if they aren't combined in the right proportions, or if they are made too far in advance, every bite is a drag.
- Ms. Silverglide, 42, the chief executive of Mixt, tried to solve this problem with a setup in which customers proceeded down a counter and called out ingredients like grilled chicken and roasted brussels sprouts while stipulating exactly how much dressing they wanted. She said the naysayers of the time told her that there weren't enough salad eaters to sustain her company, or that only women would eat there.
- Instead, lines extended down the block, and Yelp's users gave the business three and a half stars. People like Mike Ghaffary discovered a healthier kind of lunch in a restaurant where customization was encouraged.
- Mr. Ghaffary is a former Yelp executive and serial optimizer who went to Mixt in search of a vegan meal that was high in protein and low in sugar. The salad he came up with paired lentils, chickpeas and quinoa with greens and a cilantro jalape±o vinaigrette.
- Over the next several years, as Yelp grew and went public, Mixt thrived alongside it, adding a dozen locations through downtown and other city neighborhoods. Mr. Ghaffary became something of a Mixt evangelist (''He was very proud of the beany salad he came up with,'' Mr. Stoppelman said) and ordered his vegetal concoction so frequently that the salad was added to the permanent menu and still sits on the board under the name ''Be Well.''
- In the city, however, well-being was taking a hit.
- The tech companies that San Francisco had tried so hard to attract were now the target of regular protests, including some by demonstrators who at the end of 2013 began blocking commuter buses from Google and other companies to show their rage at rents that now sit at a median of $3,600. This was an opening gesture in what would become an ongoing debate about gentrification and the effect of tech companies on the city '-- a debate that played out in arguments over homeless camps, votes to stop development and countless more protests.
- All of this was rooted in the cost of housing, which had been expensive for decades but had morphed into a disaster. A local government that had all but begged tech companies to set up shop there was now pushing a raft of new taxes to deal with its spiraling affordable housing and homelessness problems. In 2017, the year the Salesforce Tower eclipsed the Transamerica Pyramid as the city's tallest skyscraper, Mr. Florida published another book. It was called ''The New Urban Crisis.''
- Image Ramps to the Salesforce Transit center in San Francisco. The vacancy rate for downtown offices has risen to 24 percent from 5 percent since 2019.An axiom of the post-Covid economy is that the pandemic didn't create new trends so much as it accelerated trends already in place. Such is the case with Yelp, which long ago started moving employees in response to San Francisco's rising cost of living, opening sales offices around the country and new engineering hubs in London and Toronto.
- Still, it was hard to see how that might pose any kind of threat to the city, whose greatest challenge seemed to be dealing with the too many jobs it already had.
- Expansions aside, Yelp was still ensconced in its headquarters at 140 New Montgomery, and by early 2020, it had every intention of signing a new lease. The company's ties to San Francisco, the hold of the creative class and all that, were too strong to imagine anything in its place.
- Headquartered in the Cloud''Have you heard about Covid?''
- Ms. Cerros-Mercado remembers asking a regional manager at Specialty's that question sometime in February or early March of 2020. The virus had been in the news for weeks, but it didn't seem like more than a seasonal bug until her 19-year-old daughter's school trip to Spain was canceled. The manager she asked wasn't so sure.
- ''He's like, 'Oh, it's just a flulike virus; it will go away,''' she said. ''And I'm looking at him and telling him, 'No, this is actually really serious.'''
- Ms. Cerros-Mercado described the following weeks as a blur of plunging sales and eerie moments like standing in a coffee shop with no customers or hearing from a janitor that the offices above them were clearing out. By May, Specialty's had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after a conference call in which she and other managers were thanked for their service and told they would be employed for three more days, during which they would deliver the news they had just received to the people who worked for them.
- ''One of the hardest conversations was having to talk to my team,'' she said. ''I had some team members that were crying because they weren't sure where their income was going to come from.''
- In that moment, the question was when life would return to how it was. But as Mr. Stoppelman discovered that he could run a publicly traded company from his home with no loss of business, he decided that for his company, anyway, the new normal was better. Yelp abandoned its headquarters when the lease at 140 New Montgomery lapsed, joining a growing list of tech companies that had replaced free cafeterias and Ping-Pong breakrooms '-- which for more than a decade had been rationalized by a belief that a social company was a more innovative company '-- with slogans like ''headquartered in the cloud.''
- Yelp ended up adding back about 50,000 feet for employees who want an occasional desk, but for the city that figure is even smaller than it seems. The new offices are one-third of its former footprint; Yelp subleased the space from Salesforce '-- the city's largest private employer, which is also cutting back on local offices.
- The emptying of American downtowns after Covid was followed by a boom in exurban housing and in cities like Austin and Spokane, trends reflected in where Yelp's work force has landed. Cortney Ward, 41, a Yelp product designer, bought a home in Austin after leaving her one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's Nob Hill. Yelp workers also invented new habits and left holes in the businesses that relied on them. When Diego Waxemberg, 30, a software engineer, left the Bay Area for Charlotte, N.C., he started lunching on leftovers instead of sometimes buying a $17 Mixt salad with tri-tip steak. Mackenzie Bise, 30, who works in user operations, moved to the Sacramento area, and during a recent online search discovered that her favorite San Francisco lunch spot had gone out of business.
- Image Maria Cerros-Mercado preparing the Mixt salad shop in Mill Valley to open for the day.During the height of the pandemic, Ms. Cerros-Mercado went through a spell of unemployment before landing at another restaurant chain and later at Mixt. But downtown business was still somewhere between lagging and nonexistent. Mixt laid off hundreds of workers, closed most downtown stores for more than a year and subsisted on business from neighborhood and suburban stores.
- ''If we didn't have the neighborhood restaurants, we wouldn't have survived '-- point blank,'' Ms. Silverglide said.
- But for all the daily rhythms that were upended by home offices, the desire for a specially prepared lunch seems to have endured. Consider Mr. Ghaffary, creator of the Be Well salad, who used the pandemic as a challenge to recreate Mixt's setup in the kitchen of his Marin County home. He started with fresh ingredients but got tired of his frequent trips to the grocery store and shifted to preparing them in bulk.
- ''I'd make like four or five days of Tupperware,'' he said. ''First I tried making the whole salad, and then it would get soggy. Then I made half the salad and would finish the rest at the end.''
- ''I was very proud of my streamlined production methods,'' he continued. ''And then I was kind of like, 'I don't want to be making these salads.'''
- Mr. Ghaffary told this story over salad at Mixt's Mill Valley store, the one Ms. Cerros-Mercado manages, which opened in July and had lines of customers in athleisure. Operations are slightly more difficult because some employees commute an hour or more to get there, most relying on buses and one sometimes trying to catch a ride in Ms. Cerros-Mercado's Uber. When a worker misses the bus, Ms. Cerros-Mercado spends her morning trying to cover for holes in the setup line.
- But the business was steady, and according to Ms. Silverglide it extends until 9 at night, catering to families and a growing salad-for-dinner segment that pairs plates of greens with the various wines and craft beers recently added to the menu. She is fairly confident that Mixt's ''neighborhood locations,'' like the Mill Valley one, will drive the business's expansion. Business in downtown San Francisco has been picking up '-- but it's unclear how long that will last, or how close to prepandemic traffic it will ever reach. The offices, after all, haven't even hit 50 percent.
- Better Together Image The building at 140 New Montgomery Street is an Art Deco landmark.A wood reception desk that used to greet Yelp's visitors sits empty in its former office. The mounted iPad where visitors once checked in is gone, along with the bright jars of candy and the rows of desks that sat beyond them. But there are still views.
- ''You can see that you get good natural light all around,'' said Stacey Spurr, a regional director for Pembroke, which owns 140 New Montgomery, during a recent tour of the quiet and empty but still quite gorgeous building.
- Ms. Spurr began the tour by pointing out the gold ceilings in the lobby before proceeding to the basement, where there are showers and bike racks. The empty floors upstairs are layered with boastful stickers like the one about the building's A-plus air filtration system.
- The nearly 160,000 square feet that Yelp left empty is about half of the building's space, and about half of that has been re-leased. The good news for Pembroke seems less good for the city. Some of the new tenants are finance and venture capital firms that have clung to the gravitas of a physical office for client meetings and the occasional conference but are unlikely to contribute regular foot traffic, according to building owners across the city.
- In a typical downturn, the turnaround is a fairly simple equation of rents falling far enough to attract new tenants and the economy improving fast enough to stimulate new demand. But now there's a more existential question of what the point of a city's downtown even is.
- Image Occupancy of San Francisco's offices is roughly 7 percentage points below that of those in the average major American city.The city, and business groups like Advance SF, are trying to reframe the urban core as a more residential and entertainment district that draws from throughout the region and may in the future involve the conversion of office buildings to residential use. The motto is ''Better Together,'' and Advance SF recently hosted a forum with a guest economist to discuss new ideas for downtown. The guest was Richard Florida.
- ''When I started with the creative class, places didn't care about young people, they were only trying to attract a family with children to the lovely suburbs, and I'm saying, 'No, no, no, no, no,''' Mr. Florida said in an interview. ''Twenty years later, people forgot about the families. And now here's a whole generation leaving cities again, for metropolitan or virtual suburbs.''
- The more businesses invest with that new reality in mind, the more likely that reality becomes self-fulfilling.
- A year after being consumed by bankruptcy, Specialty's, the cafe chain where Ms. Cerros-Mercado began her career, was reincarnated. The first new store sits in the Silicon Valley town of Mountain View, and as the company plots its next expansion it is eschewing the office-adjacent locations on which the original company was built for a more delivery-centric business that has a world of half-empty buildings in mind.
- Back at 140 New Montgomery, the owners are experimenting with new ideas to get office workers to come in. The building has been hosting gatherings like an Oktoberfest celebration that included a raffle to win a beer stein with the building's logo.
- On the afternoon of the Oktoberfest party, a cluster of workers from a software company stood around eating sausages and soft pretzels.
- ''We hear a lot of buzz about this building,'' said Veronica Arvizu, a senior property manager at the real estate company CBRE. ''We hear it's the busiest in the city.''
- A few feet away from her, another group of young workers was playing Jenga. One by one, they took blocks away from the structure, making way for the inevitable collapse.
- This School Calls the Police on Students Every Other Day '-- ProPublica
- On the last street before leaving Jacksonville, there's a dark brick one-story building that the locals know as the school for ''bad'' kids. It's actually a tiny public school for children with disabilities. It sits across the street from farmland and is 2 miles from the Illinois city's police department, which makes for a short trip when the school calls 911.
- Administrators at the Garrison School call the police to report student misbehavior every other school day, on average. And because staff members regularly press charges against the children '-- some as young as 9 '-- officers have arrested students more than 100 times in the last five school years, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica found. That is an astounding number given that Garrison, the only school that is part of the Four Rivers Special Education District, has fewer than 65 students in most years.
- No other school district '-- not just in Illinois, but in the entire country '-- had a higher student arrest rate than Four Rivers the last time data was collected nationwide. That school year, 2017-18, more than half of all Garrison students were arrested.
- Officers typically handcuff students and take them to the police station, where they are fingerprinted, photographed and placed in a holding room. For at least a decade, the local newspaper has included the arrests in its daily police blotter for all to see.
- Credit: (Jacksonville Journal-Courier) The students enrolled each year at Garrison have severe emotional or behavioral disabilities that kept them from succeeding at previous schools. Some also have been diagnosed with autism, ADHD or other disorders. Many have experienced horrifying trauma, including sexual abuse, the death of parents and incarceration of family members, according to interviews with families and school employees.
- Getting arrested for behavior at school is not inevitable for students with such challenges. There are about 60 similar public special education schools across Illinois, but none comes anywhere close to Garrison in their number of student arrests, the investigation found.
- The ProPublica-Tribune investigation '-- built on hundreds of school reports and police records, as well as dozens of interviews with employees, students and parents '-- reveals how a public school intended to be a therapeutic option for students with severe emotional disabilities has instead subjected many of them to the justice system.
- It is ''just backwards if you are sending kids to a therapeutic day school and then locking them up. That is not what therapeutic day schools are for,'' said Jessica Gingold, an attorney in the special education clinic at Equip for Equality, the state's federally appointed watchdog for people with disabilities.
- Doors lead to classrooms at the Garrison School, a public special education school for students with severe emotional or behavioral disabilities. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune ''If the school exists for young people who need support, to think of them as delinquents is basically the worst you could do. It's counter to what should be happening,'' Gingold said.
- Because of the difficulties the students face in regulating their emotions, these specialized schools are tasked with recognizing what triggers their behavior, teaching calming strategies and reinforcing good behavior. But Garrison doesn't even offer students the type of help many traditional schools have: a curriculum known as social emotional learning that is aimed at teaching students how to develop social skills, manage their emotions and show empathy toward others.
- Tracey Fair, director of the Four Rivers Special Education District, said it is the only public school in this part of west central Illinois for students with severe behavioral disabilities, and there are few options for private placement. School workers deal with challenging behavior from Garrison students every day, she said.
- Tracey Fair, director of the Four Rivers Special Education District, which runs the Garrison School, speaks at a November meeting of the district's board. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune ''There are consequences to their behavior and this behavior would not be tolerated anywhere else in the community,'' Fair said in written answers to reporters' questions.
- Fair, who has overseen Four Rivers since July 2020, said Garrison administrators call police only when students are being physically aggressive or in response to ''ongoing'' misbehavior. But records detail multiple instances when staff called police because students were being disobedient: spraying water, punching a desk or damaging a filing cabinet, for example.
- ''The students were still not calming down, so police arrested them,'' wrote Fair, speaking on behalf of the district and the school.
- This year, the Tribune and ProPublica have been exposing the consequences for students when their schools use police as disciplinarians. The investigation ''The Price Kids Pay'' uncovered the practice of Illinois schools working with local law enforcement to ticket students for minor misbehavior. Reporters documented nearly 12,000 tickets in dozens of school districts, and state officials moved quickly to denounce the practice.
- This latest investigation further reveals the harm to children when schools abdicate student discipline to police. Arrested students miss time in the classroom and get entangled in the justice system. They come to view adults as hostile and school as prison-like, a place where they regularly are confined to classrooms when the school is ''on restriction'' because of police presence.
- A ''Police Incident Report'' form used by the Garrison School details a student's behavior and arrest. Credit: Obtained by ProPublica and Chicago Tribune; identifying information removed by the school. U.S. Department of Education and Illinois officials have reminded educators in recent months that if school officials fail to consider whether a student's behavior is related to their disability, they risk running afoul of federal law.
- But unlike some other states, Illinois does not require schools to report student arrest data to the state or direct its education department to monitor police involvement in school incidents. Legislative efforts to do so have stalled over the past few years.
- In response to questions from reporters about Garrison, Illinois Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala said the frequent arrests there were ''concerning.'' An Illinois State Board of Education spokesperson said a state team visited the school this month to examine ''potential violations'' raised through ProPublica and Tribune reporting.
- The team confirmed an overreliance on police and, as a result, the state will provide training and other professional development, spokesperson Jackie Matthews said.
- ''It is not illegal to call the police, but there are tactics and strategies to use to keep it from getting to that point,'' Matthews said.
- Ayala said educators cannot ignore their responsibility to help students work through behavioral issues.
- ''Involving the police in any student issue can escalate the situation and lead to criminal justice involvement, so calling the police should be a last resort,'' she said in a written statement.
- In 2018, Jacksonville police arrested a student named Christian just a few weeks into his first year at Garrison, when he was 12 years old. His ''disruptive'' behavior earlier in the day '-- he had knocked on doors and bounced a ball in the hallway '-- had led to a warning: ''One more thing'' and he would be arrested, a school report said. He then removed items from an aide's desk and was ''being disrespectful,'' so police were summoned. They took him into custody for disorderly conduct.
- Christian has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. Now 16, he has been arrested at Garrison several more times and was sent to a detention center after at least one of the arrests, he and his mother said.
- He stopped going to school in October; his mother said it's heartbreaking that he's not in class, but at Garrison, ''it's more hectic than productive. He's more in trouble than learning anything.''
- ''If they call the police on you, you are going to jail,'' Christian told reporters. ''It is not just one coming to get you. It will be two or three of them. They handcuff you and walk you out, right out the door.''
- Handcuffs and Holding RoomsJust over an hour into the school day on Nov. 15, two police cars rushed into the Garrison school parking lot and stopped outside the front doors. Three more squad cars pulled in behind them but quickly moved on.
- Principal Denise Waggener had called the Jacksonville police to report that a 14-year-old student had been spitting at staff members. When police arrived, one of the officers recognized the boy, because he had driven him to school that morning. The student had missed the bus and called police for help, according to a police report and 911 call.
- School staff had placed the boy in one of Garrison's small cinder-block seclusion rooms for ''misbehavior,'' police records show. A school worker told the officer she had been standing in the doorway of the seclusion room when the boy spit and it landed on her face, glasses and shirt.
- ''He Spit in the Staff's Face''
- Denise Waggener, the Garrison School principal, called Jacksonville police in November after a student spit on an employee. The student was arrested for aggravated battery. Credit: Audio obtained by the Tribune and ProPublica from the Jacksonville Police Department. Audio was condensed for clarity. The child ''initially stated he did not spit at anyone, but then said he did spit,'' according to the police report, ''but instantly regretted doing so.'' The report said the child ''stated he knew right from wrong, but often had violent outbursts.''
- The worker asked to press charges, and the officer arrested the boy for aggravated battery.
- Credit: (Jacksonville Journal-Courier) One officer told the child he was under arrest while another searched and handcuffed him. They put him in the back seat of a squad car, drove him to the police station, read him his rights and booked him. Officers told the boy the county's probation department would contact him later, and then they dropped him off with a guardian, records show.
- The Tribune and ProPublica documented and analyzed 415 of Garrison's ''police incident reports'' dating to 2015 and found the school has called police, on average, once every two school days.
- The reports, written by school staff and obtained through public records requests, describe in detail what happened up until the moment police were called. These narratives, along with recordings of 911 calls, show that school workers often summon police not amid an emergency but because someone at the school wants police to hold the child responsible for their behavior.
- Jacksonville police respond in November to a call from a Garrison School administrator about a student's misbehavior. Officers arrested the student. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune About half the calls were made for safety reasons because students had fled the school. Those students rarely were arrested. Students whom police did arrest were most often accused of aggravated battery and had been involved in physical interactions such as spitting or pushing; by state law, any physical interaction with a school employee elevates what would otherwise be a battery charge to aggravated battery. The next most common arrest reasons were disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and property damage.
- The school once called police after a student was told he couldn't use the restroom because he ''had done nothing all morning,'' records show. The boy got upset, left the classroom anyway and broke a desk in the hallway.
- The school called police on a 12-year-old who was ''running the halls, cussing staff.''
- And the school called the police when a 15-year-old boy who was made to eat lunch inside one of the school's seclusion rooms threw his applesauce and milk against the wall.
- Police arrested them all.
- ''These students, I would imagine, feel like potential criminals under threat,'' said Aaron Kupchik, a sociologist at the University of Delaware who studies punishment and policing in schools.
- ''We are taking the actions of young people, and, rather than trying to invest in solving real behavioral problems that are very difficult, we are just exposing them to the legal system and legal system consequences.''
- Jacksonville Chief of Police Adam Mefford said officers respond to every 911 call from Garrison on the assumption it's an emergency, and as many as five squad cars can respond. Police often find a child in a seclusion room, Mefford said.
- Adam Mefford, Jacksonville police chief. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune Officers determine whether a law has been broken but leave the decision whether to press charges to the school staff, he said. Police sometimes issue tickets to Garrison students for violating local ordinances, though arrests are far more common.
- ''The school errs on the side of pressing charges,'' Mefford said. ''They typically have the student arrested.''
- He wondered whether school administrators call police so frequently because it's become a habit that's difficult to stop. ''The school has gotten used to us handling some of these problems,'' Mefford said.
- Once arrested, the students are taken to the police station until parents pick them up or an officer takes them home. One mother told reporters that her 10-year-old son, who has autism and ADHD, was ''bawling, freaking out,'' when she picked him up after he was booked at the jail.
- Mefford said he tried to make the experience less traumatic by moving the booking process from the county detention facility to the police station in 2021. He also said police refer students and their families to services in the community, such as counseling or substance abuse help.
- After they are booked, students are screened to determine if they should be sent to a juvenile detention facility. Most are assigned to an informal alternative to juvenile court that Morgan County court officials regularly use, said Tod Dillard, director of the county's probation department.
- Jacksonville police bring the Garrison School students they arrest to this booking area at the police station to be fingerprinted and photographed. Students often wait in the room for a guardian to pick them up. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune These young people avoid going to juvenile court, but the ''probation adjustment'' process also requires them to admit guilt and denies them a public defender. Students must periodically report to a probation officer, typically for a year.
- Violating the probation terms, such as by skipping school or getting arrested again, could lead to juvenile delinquency charges. In a juvenile court case, a student's record of previous informal probation can be used when considering bail or sentencing.
- Garrison has some students who are 18 and older, and they can be charged as adults. In 2020, an 18-year-old Garrison student was arrested for disorderly conduct after he ''caused a disturbance'' when he threw a cup of water and punched a pencil sharpener, court records show. That student spent four days in jail and was held on $3,000 bail. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $439 in court costs and $10 a month in probation fees.
- An 18-year-old student was charged with disorderly conduct after an incident at the Garrison School. Credit: Obtained from the Morgan County Circuit Court. Redacted by ProPublica. Even for younger students, juvenile charges related to Garrison can later have consequences in adult court. If they are arrested again after they turn 18, prior cases can be used to illustrate that they have a police record.
- The boy who spit in anger this fall at Garrison now has an aggravated battery arrest on his record. Even Fair, the school's director, found the decision to arrest the child troubling.
- The day after the boy was taken into custody, Fair told reporters she knew the child had been arrested but said she did not know why school administrators had called police. Reporters told her it had been for spitting on one of her employees.
- ''That's not arrestworthy. That is not what we should be about,'' Fair said. In a later interview, after learning more about the incident, Fair said staff considered the student aggressive and said, ''I guess they did what they thought was right.''
- From Empathy to ''Coercive Babysitting''Bev Johns, a local educator, founded Garrison in 1981 with just two students '-- and a belief that with a caring staff and the right support, they could be successful.
- The children had exhibited such disruptive behavior that staffers at their home schools felt ill-equipped to teach them. Her solution: Open a school designed to teach students not just academic subjects but how to manage their behavior. It became part of the Four Rivers Special Education District, a regional cooperative that today provides services to students in school districts across eight mostly rural counties.
- The school was considered groundbreaking, and many of the techniques that Johns implemented at Garrison are still widely considered best practice for managing challenging behavior: giving students space when they're upset, teaching them ways to manage their emotions and giving them choices rather than shouting demands.
- Those techniques often involve trying to understand what's driving a student's behavior. A student shoving papers off their desk may feel overwhelmed and need assignments in smaller increments. A student struggling to sit still may need classwork that involves them moving around the room.
- Taking the students' disabilities into account when they misbehave is now a firmly entrenched concept in education. In fact, it's federal law.
- ''There's a requirement both in the law '-- and just morally '-- that kids with disabilities are not supposed to be punished for behaviors that are related to their disability, or caused by it, or caused by the school's failure to meet their needs,'' said Dan Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
- Johns, who led Garrison until 2003, has dedicated her career to these ideas. She published research about ''the Garrison method'' to help other educators, taught at a nearby college and continues to speak regularly at conferences.
- ''Choice is such a powerful strategy. It's such an easy intervention,'' Johns recently told a standing-room-only crowd at an Illinois special education convention in Naperville. And schools should look welcoming too, she said. ''I see some schools that look like prisons. Why would a child want to go there?''
- Buses from school districts throughout an eight-county region of rural Illinois bring students to the Garrison School on a morning in November. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune The Garrison of today isn't a prison, but it relies on rules and methods meant to manage students.
- In recent years, staffers sometimes took away students' shoes to discourage them from fleeing, though Fair said that has not happened under her watch. Before a recent Illinois law banned locked seclusion in schools, Garrison workers used to shut students inside one of the school's several seclusion rooms '-- staff members would stand outside and press a button to engage a magnetic lock. The doors have since been removed, but the ''crisis rooms'' are still used. The Four Rivers district reported to ISBE that workers had restrained or secluded students 155 times in the 2021-2022 school year '-- three times as many incidents as students.
- One of the seclusion rooms at the Garrison School, called ''crisis rooms,'' shown in 2019. Credit: Obtained by ProPublica and the Tribune ''They would lock me in a concrete room and then close the door on me and lock it. I would freak out even worse,'' said an 18-year-old named Max, who left the school in 2020.
- Some of the school's aides are assigned to one of two ''crisis teams'' of four employees each that respond to classrooms and can remove students who are upset, disobedient or aggressive.
- Employees' handwritten records describe several incidents where they confined a child to a small area inside the classroom. In one case, the crisis team made a ''human wall'' around a 14-year-old student who was wandering in the classroom, swearing and being disruptive. A 16-year-old student told reporters that school employees drew a box around his desk in chalk and told him not to leave the area or there would be consequences.
- Charles Cropp, who has worked as part of crisis teams at Garrison on and off since 2009, said he and his colleagues try to help students learn how to calm down when they are upset. He said teams aim to help students learn how to manage their emotions but that sometimes the young people also need to be held ''accountable'' when they are physical or disruptive.
- ''I was one that never really cared to watch kids get escorted out in handcuffs,'' said Cropp, who returned to the school full time in late November. ''I never liked it but in the same sense, they have to learn when you graduate and you are an adult in the public, you can't do those things.''
- Garrison workers were recently trained in the Ukeru method, a crisis intervention system that uses blue shields to block students' physical aggression in place of physical restraint. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune Jen Frakes, a board-certified behavior analyst who worked at Garrison in 2015-16, described the culture at Garrison as ''coercive babysitting.'' She said she never saw a situation that warranted arresting a student.
- ''It seemed more of a power dynamic of 'You'll either follow my rules or I will show you who's in charge,''' said Frakes, who runs a Springfield business that helps schools and families learn to work through challenging behavior. ''When I saw a kid get arrested, he was sitting underneath his desk calm and quiet, and they came in and arrested him.''
- This isn't how other schools similar to Garrison are handling difficult student behavior.
- Reporters identified 57 other public schools throughout Illinois that also exclusively serve students with severe behavioral disabilities. To determine how often police were involved at those schools and why, reporters made public records requests to all of the schools and to the police or sheriff's departments that serve each one. Reporters were able to examine police records for 50 schools.
- The two schools with the most arrests during the last four school years had 16 and 18, respectively. At 23 of the schools, no students were arrested in that period; six schools had only one arrest.
- By comparison, five students were arrested at Garrison by mid-November of this school year alone, according to school and police records.
- John McKenna, an assistant professor specializing in special education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said arresting students not only criminalizes them but also takes them out of the classroom.
- ''Kids are supposed to be receiving instruction and support and not opportunities to enter the school-to-prison pipeline,'' he said.
- ''If you don't provide kids with academic instruction, particularly those with behavior and emotional needs, the gaps between their performance and the peers who don't have disabilities grows exponentially and sets them up for failure,'' McKenna said.
- The fact that Garrison students have disabilities that may explain some of their behavior appears to be lost on many of the officials who encounter them in the justice system; some described Garrison as a school for delinquents, not disabled children. A public defender tasked with representing students in juvenile court described the children as having been ''kicked out'' of their regular schools. An assistant state's attorney thought students at Garrison had been ''expelled'' from traditional schools. Neither of those descriptions is accurate.
- Rhea Welch, who worked under Johns and retired in 2016, said that during her 26 years as a teacher at Garrison it was not a place that relied heavily on police. ''You don't want your kids arrested, for heaven's sake. You want to be able to work with them so that doesn't happen, so they're more in control,'' she said.
- For Johns, Garrison is no longer the school she remembers. Students need positive feedback, she said, not constant reprimands from and clashes with the adults they are supposed to trust.
- ''I always say when you're having trouble with a child, the first place you look is yourself,'' she said.
- Johns read some of the school's recent police incident reports and said she found them ''bothersome,'' adding, ''It's obviously hard for me to watch what's happened.''
- ''I Did Everything I Could to Get Him Out''Gabe, a 12-year-old boy with autism, likes to share with anyone who will listen all the details of his Pokemon collection and has gotten good at using online translators to read the cards with Japanese lettering on them. His stepmother, Lena, said that over the years Gabe has learned to ask for what he needs. When he gets overstimulated at home, he asks for space by saying: ''I need you to back up.''
- (When using the last name of a parent would identify the student '--'' and in doing so, create a publicly available record of the student's arrest '--'' ProPublica and the Tribune are referring to the parent by first name only.)
- After an incident at the Garrison School, Gabe and his family decided he couldn't go back. Shown with his father, Billy, and stepmother Lena, Gabe, who is 12 and has autism, now goes to a school 90 minutes away. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune Gabe ended up at Garrison in 2019 after having difficulty in traditional schools. He will sometimes yell and lash out when frustrated.
- Lena said school officials asked her to pick up Gabe if he got upset. ''I would hear Gabe screaming, and then heard them screaming back at him,'' she said. ''He'd say, 'Leave me alone! Leave me alone!' And they'd still get up in his face.''
- And then one day, Gabe and Lena said, school workers barricaded him at his desk by pushing filing cabinets around it. He pushed over one of the cabinets while trying to get away, and the school called the police, Lena said.
- ''We had to pick up our 10-year-old at the police station,'' Lena said. ''I would freak out if I got boxed in with filing cabinets.''
- It got so that Gabe would wake up angry and not want to go to school.
- ''That school is at the bottom of the food chain. If you got all the schools in the world, they would be at the bottom of the food chain. The workers there are mean,'' said Gabe.
- Other parents described their children becoming angrier, more withdrawn; the students dreaded going to school at Garrison. Some families begged their home districts to find another school for them.
- ''It was like hell,'' said one mother, who said her son was miserable while he was a student there. ''I did everything I could to get him out.'' Her son attended Garrison for about five years before she got him returned to his home school. He is in his first year of college now.
- Michelle Prather, whose daughter Destiny attended Garrison from fifth grade until she graduated in 2021, said school employees threatened to call police over minor missteps: throwing a piece of paper, or pushing a desk.
- ''She would walk out of a room and they'd say, 'We're going to call police,''' Prather said. Destiny was arrested at least once after she shoved an aide while trying to leave a classroom.
- Prather and other caregivers said watching their children be arrested over and over was troubling, but it was also upsetting to realize that the school wasn't providing the support services the students needed.
- Destiny has intellectual disabilities and ADHD as well as acute spina bifida, a defect of the spine. Because of her medical condition, Destiny had difficulty sensing when she needed to use the restroom. She would sometimes get up from her desk and tell staff that she urgently needed to go.
- ''They would say, 'No you don't,''' said her mother. ''She would have accidents. I would have to bring her clothes.''
- Destiny, 19, who graduated from Garrison in 2021, plays with her family's dog inside their home. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune Madisen Hohimer, who is now 22 and working as a bartender, said she transferred to Garrison in sixth grade when her home school recommended it. She remembers Garrison as a place that failed to help her. Hohimer said she frequently ran away from the school and employees took her shoes to try to keep her from fleeing.
- ''I was never involved with the police before Garrison. I started mostly acting out when I got sent over there because I felt like I had nobody,'' she said. One time, she said, she swung and kicked at staff after they cornered her in a seclusion room. She wound up being arrested for aggravated battery.
- Just weeks before Hohimer was set to graduate, she left for good. ''I wish they would have found a way to help me,'' she said.
- After Gabe's filing cabinet incident, his parents kept him home until he could be placed at a private therapeutic school three counties away. He's been going there since last year.
- ''It's an hour and a half ride and he'd rather do that than go to Garrison,'' said Lena, a nursing student. He's thriving there, she said, and noted that the school has never called police about Gabe's behavior.
- At their home in Jacksonville, Gabe shows his mother, Lena, a record player he made at school out of a cup and paper clip. Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune But one of Lena's other children, Nathan, remained at Garrison.
- Then one morning in late September, she got a text from her son:
- ''I'M AT THE POLICE STATION THERE GOING TO GET MY FINGERPRINTS AND TAKE A PICTURE OF ME AND BRING ME BACK TO THE HOUSE.''
- ''A Staff Member Will Probably Press Charges''
- A 14-year-old student pushed an aide and then left the school. A school employee called police to request help finding the student and having a school worker press charges. Credit: Audio obtained by the Tribune and ProPublica from the Jacksonville Police Department. Audio was condensed for clarity. Nathan, who was 14 at the time, had been arrested after he hit a classmate and then shoved an aide who was trying to physically keep him in the classroom, according to a school report. He then left the school. In a 911 call, a school administrator asked police to find Nathan and also to come to the school ''because a staff member will probably press charges.''
- Nathan's family decided not to send him back to Garrison. He's taking classes online instead.
- ''That was my worst mistake, putting either of my kids in Garrison,'' Lena said. ''If I could take it back, I would.''
- Credit: (Jacksonville Journal-Courier) No One WatchingWarning signs that Garrison was punishing students with policing have been there for years, waiting for someone to take notice.
- Since as far back as 2011, the federal government has published data online about police involvement and arrests at schools. That year, the data showed, Garrison called police on 54% of its students and 14% were arrested. Three subsequent publications of similar data show the arrest rate climbing each time '-- until, in 2017-18, more than half of Garrison's students were arrested.
- Though the federal data could have raised red flags, Illinois does not collect data on police involvement in schools and does not require that the state education board monitor it. The state does monitor other punitive practices in schools, such as their numbers of suspensions and expulsions, and requires schools to make improvements when the data shows excessive use.
- Illinois legislation that would have required ISBE to collect data annually on school-related arrests and other discipline stalled last year.
- The state board, however, has issued guidance about involving police in school discipline. Earlier this year, ISBE and the state attorney general's office told school districts across the state to use social workers, mental health professionals and counselors '-- not police '-- to create a ''positive and safe school climate.''
- Before last week, no one from ISBE had been to Garrison for at least the last seven school years. There had been no complaints that would have triggered a monitoring visit, said Matthews, the state board spokesperson.
- Garrison has its own school board, and it '-- not the state board '-- is responsible for monitoring the school, including police activity, ISBE officials said. The school board is made up of representatives from some of the 18 school districts that rely on Four Rivers for special education staffing and placements at Garrison.
- The board president, Linda Eades, said after a November board meeting that she couldn't answer questions about the police involvement at Garrison and described the board as hands-off. ''We don't get down in the trenches,'' she said.
- Fair, the district's director, said she is trying to understand the scope of police involvement at Garrison and is ''digging into'' school reports. ''I'm trying so hard. It's a lot of stuff to change,'' she said in an interview. ''There are a lot of things that need to improve.''
- Earlier this year, Garrison was awarded a $635,000 ''Community Partnership Grant'' through ISBE for training to help students with their behavioral and mental health needs and help schools reduce their reliance on punitive discipline. '
- Some of the grant money has been used to pay for training in Ukeru, a method of addressing physical aggression that doesn't involve physically restraining a child.
- The Ukeru method focuses on training workers in how to prevent challenging behavior from becoming a crisis and uses soft blue pads to block kicks and punches if necessary. Garrison workers were trained in the method in October; blue pads are now propped up in the hallways in the building.
- State Investigation Reveals Racial Disparities in Student Discipline and Police Involvement
- Starting two weeks ago, Fair said, the school began using its two social workers and a social work intern in a new way. One of the social workers is now available to go into a classroom when a student needs help, providing a way to intervene before behavior escalates into a crisis. Fair said she also plans to incorporate social emotional learning into the curriculum.
- School administrators mentioned the Ukeru training and some of Garrison's latest efforts at the November board meeting, which lasted about 20 minutes. Fair said the school had begun to monitor police involvement and arrests and said she is trying to ''boost up some of the supports for the kids.''
- Her priority now, she assured them, is to ''really help make it a therapeutic place for the kids.''
- That's what it was always supposed to be.
- Lynn Dombek contributed research.
- 'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes '' DNyuz
- On a brisk recent Sunday, a band of teenagers met on the steps of Central Library on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn to start the weekly meeting of the Luddite Club, a high school group that promotes a lifestyle of self-liberation from social media and technology. As the dozen teens headed into Prospect Park, they hid away their iPhones '-- or, in the case of the most devout members, their flip phones, which some had decorated with stickers and nail polish.
- They marched up a hill toward their usual spot, a dirt mound located far from the park's crowds. Among them was Odille Zexter-Kaiser, a senior at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood, who trudged through leaves in Doc Martens and mismatched wool socks.
- ''It's a little frowned on if someone doesn't show up,'' Odille said. ''We're here every Sunday, rain or shine, even snow. We don't keep in touch with each other, so you have to show up.''
- After the club members gathered logs to form a circle, they sat and withdrew into a bubble of serenity.
- Some drew in sketchbooks. Others painted with a watercolor kit. One of them closed their eyes to listen to the wind. Many read intently '-- the books in their satchels included Dostoevsky's ''Crime and Punishment,'' Art Spiegelman's ''Maus II'' and ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' by Boethius. The club members cite libertine writers like Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac as heroes, and they have a fondness for works condemning technology, like ''Player Piano'' by Kurt Vonnegut. Arthur, the bespectacled PBS aardvark, is their mascot.
- ''Lots of us have read this book called 'Into the Wild,''' said Lola Shub, a senior at Essex Street Academy, referring to Jon Krakauer's 1996 nonfiction book about the nomad Chris McCandless, who died while trying to live off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. ''We've all got this theory that we're not just meant to be confined to buildings and work. And that guy was experiencing life. Real life. Social media and phones are not real life.''
- ''When I got my flip phone, things instantly changed,'' Lola continued. ''I started using my brain. It made me observe myself as a person. I've been trying to write a book, too. It's like 12 pages now.''
- Briefly, the club members discussed how the spreading of their Luddite gospel was going. Founded last year by another Murrow High School student, Logan Lane, the club is named after Ned Ludd, the folkloric 18th-century English textile worker who supposedly smashed up a mechanized loom, inspiring others to take up his name and riot against industrialization.
- ''I just held the first successful Luddite meeting at Beacon,'' said Biruk Watling, a senior at Beacon High School in Manhattan, who uses a green-painted flip phone with a picture of a Fugees-era Lauryn Hill pasted to it.
- ''I hear there's talk of it spreading at Brooklyn Tech,'' someone else said.
- A few members took a moment to extol the benefits of going Luddite.
- Jameson Butler, a student in a Black Flag T-shirt who was carving a piece of wood with a pocketknife, explained: ''I've weeded out who I want to be friends with. Now it takes work for me to maintain friendships. Some reached out when I got off the iPhone and said, 'I don't like texting with you anymore because your texts are green.' That told me a lot.''
- Vee De La Cruz, who had a copy of ''The Souls of Black Folk'' by W.E.B. Du Bois, said: ''You post something on social media, you don't get enough likes, then you don't feel good about yourself. That shouldn't have to happen to anyone. Being in this club reminds me we're all living on a floating rock and that it's all going to be OK.''
- A few days before the gathering, after the 3 p.m. dismissal at Murrow High School, a flood of students emerged from the building onto the street. Many of them were staring at their smartphones, but not Logan, the 17-year-old founder of the Luddite Club.
- Down the block from the school, she sat for an interview at a Chock full o'Nuts coffee shop. She wore a baggy corduroy jacket and quilted jeans that she had stitched herself using a Singer sewing machine.
- ''We have trouble recruiting members,'' she said, ''but we don't really mind it. All of us have bonded over this unique cause. To be in the Luddite Club, there's a level of being a misfit to it.'' She added: ''But I wasn't always a Luddite, of course.''
- It all began during lockdown, she said, when her social media use took a troubling turn.
- ''I became completely consumed,'' she said. ''I couldn't not post a good picture if I had one. And I had this online personality of, 'I don't care,' but I actually did. I was definitely still watching everything.''
- Eventually, too burned out to scroll past yet one more picture-perfect Instagram selfie, she deleted the app.
- ''But that wasn't enough,'' she said. ''So I put my phone in a box.''
- For the first time, she experienced life in the city as a teenager without an iPhone. She borrowed novels from the library and read them alone in the park. She started admiring graffiti when she rode the subway, then fell in with some teens who taught her how to spray-paint in a freight train yard in Queens. And she began waking up without an alarm clock at 7 a.m., no longer falling asleep to the glow of her phone at midnight. Once, as she later wrote in a text titled the ''Luddite Manifesto,'' she fantasized about tossing her iPhone into the Gowanus Canal.
- While Logan's parents appreciated her metamorphosis, particularly that she was regularly coming home for dinner to recount her wanderings, they grew distressed that they couldn't check in on their daughter on a Friday night. And after she conveniently lost the smartphone they had asked her to take to Paris for a summer abroad program, they were distraught. Eventually, they insisted that she at least start carrying a flip phone.
- ''I still long to have no phone at all,'' she said. ''My parents are so addicted. My mom got on Twitter, and I've seen it tear her apart. But I guess I also like it, because I get to feel a little superior to them.''
- At an all-ages punk show, she met a teen with a flip phone, and they bonded over their worldview. ''She was just a freshman, and I couldn't believe how well read she was,'' Logan said. ''We walked in the park with apple cider and doughnuts and shared our Luddite experiences. That was the first meeting of the Luddite Club.'' This early compatriot, Jameson Butler, remains a member.
- When school was back in session, Logan began preaching her evangel in the fluorescent-lit halls of Murrow. First she convinced Odille to go Luddite. Then Max. Then Clem. She hung homemade posters recounting the tale of Ned Ludd onto corridors and classroom walls.
- At a club fair, her enlistment table remained quiet all day, but little by little the group began to grow. Today, the club has about 25 members, and the Murrow branch convenes at the school each Tuesday. It welcomes students who have yet to give up their iPhones, offering them the challenge of ignoring their devices for the hourlong meeting (lest they draw scowls from the die-hards). At the Sunday park gatherings, Luddites often set up hammocks to read in when the weather is nice.
- As Logan recounted the club's origin story over an almond croissant at the coffee shop, a new member, Julian, stopped in. Although he hadn't yet made the switch to a flip phone, he said he was already benefiting from the group's message. Then he ribbed Logan regarding a criticism one student had made about the club.
- ''One kid said it's classist,'' he said. ''I think the club's nice, because I get a break from my phone, but I get their point. Some of us need technology to be included in society. Some of us need a phone.''
- ''We get backlash,'' Logan replied. ''The argument I've heard is we're a bunch of rich kids and expecting everyone to drop their phones is privileged.''
- After Julian left, Logan admitted that she had wrestled with the matter and that the topic had spurred some heated debate among club members.
- ''I was really discouraged when I heard the classist thing and almost ready to say goodbye to the club,'' she said. ''I talked to my adviser, though, and he told me most revolutions actually start with people from industrious backgrounds, like Che Guevara. We're not expecting everyone to have a flip phone. We just see a problem with mental health and screen use.''
- Logan needed to get home to meet with a tutor, so she headed to the subway. With the end of her senior year in sight, and the pressures of adulthood looming, she has also pondered what leaving high school might mean for her Luddite ways.
- ''If now is the only time I get do this in my life, then I'm going to make it count,'' she said. ''But I really hope it won't end.''
- On a leafy street in Cobble Hill, she stepped into her family's townhouse, where she was greeted by a goldendoodle named Phoebe, and she rushed upstairs to her room. The d(C)cor reflected her interests: There were stacks of books, graffitied walls and, in addition to the sewing machine, a manual Royal typewriter and a Sony cassette player.
- In the living room downstairs, her father, Seth Lane, an executive who works in I.T., sat beside a fireplace and offered thoughts on his daughter's journey.
- ''I'm proud of her and what the club represents,'' he said. ''But there's also the parent part of it, and we don't know where our kid is. You follow your kids now. You track them. It's a little Orwellian, I guess, but we're the helicopter parent generation. So when she got rid of the iPhone, that presented a problem for us, initially.''
- He'd heard about the Luddite Club's hand-wringing over questions of privilege.
- ''Well, it's classist to make people need to have smartphones, too, right?'' Mr. Lane said. ''I think it's a great conversation they're having. There's no right answer.''
- A couple days later, as the Sunday meeting of the Luddite Club was coming to an end in Prospect Park, a few of the teens put away their sketchbooks and dog-eared paperbacks while others stomped out a tiny fire they had lit. It was the 17th birthday of Clementine Karlin-Pustilnik and, to celebrate, the club wanted to take her for dinner at a Thai restaurant on Fort Hamilton Parkway.
- Night was falling on the park as the teens walked in the cold and traded high school gossip. But a note of tension seemed to form in the air when the topic of college admissions came up. The club members exchanged updates about the schools they had applied to across the country. Odille reported getting into the State University of New York at Purchase.
- ''You could totally start a Luddite Club there, I bet,'' said Elena Scherer, a Murrow senior.
- Taking a shortcut, they headed down a lonely path that had no park lamps. Their talk livened when they discussed the poetry of Lewis Carroll, the piano compositions of Ravel and the evils of TikTok. Elena pointed at the night sky.
- ''Look,'' she said. ''That's a waxing gibbous. That means it's going to get bigger.''
- As they marched through the dark, the only light glowing on their faces was that of the moon.
- The post 'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes appeared first on New York Times.
- Huge Berlin aquarium bursts, spilling 1,500 fish onto road | Reuters
- Aquarium spills 1 million litres onto major road'Lots of dead fish, debris' - hotel guestAround 1,500 fish died - complex ownerFire brigade says cause of incident still unclearBERLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A huge aquarium in Berlin burst early on Friday, spilling 1 million litres (264,172 gallons) of water, around 1,500 exotic fish and debris onto a major road in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said.
- Around 100 emergency responders rushed to the site, a leisure complex that houses a Radisson hotel and a museum as well as what Sea Life Berlin said was the world's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium at 14 metres (46ft) in height.
- "It felt like an earthquake" said Naz Masraff, who had been staying at the hotel.
- Another hotel guest, Sandra Weeser, spoke of chaos.
- "The whole aquarium burst and what's left is total devastation. Lots of dead fish, debris," she told Reuters.
- The 1,500 fish from the aquarium died, said a spokesperson for Union Investment, which manages the real estate fund that owns the property.
- Efforts are underway to rescue fish from several smaller tanks that were near the AquaDom and that escaped destruction but have been subjected to power cuts in the building, he said.
- A spokesperson for the fire brigade told Reuters it was still unclear what had caused the AquaDom aquarium to burst.
- TRAGEDY AVERTED?[1/7] Emergency services work on a street outside a hotel after a burst and leak of the AquaDom aquarium in central Berlin near Alexanderplatz, with water poured out onto the street, in Berlin, Germany, December 16, 2022. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi
- It was fortunate that the accident happened so early in the morning, when there was hardly anybody in the immediate vicinity, Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey was quoted as saying.
- "If this hadn't happened at 5.45 am but even just one hour later, then we would probably have had terrible human loss to report," broadcaster RBB cited Giffey as saying.
- Two people, including a hotel employee, were injured by splinters of glass, and emergency services asked around 350 hotel guests to pack their belongings and leave amid concerns that there could be structural damage.
- Buses were sent to provide shelter for the hotel guests, police said, as outside temperatures in Berlin in the morning hovered around -7 degrees Celsius (19.4°F).
- Radisson told its Radisson Rewards loyalty club members in an e-mail that the Radisson Collection Hotel Berlin was closed until further notice.
- Sea Life Berlin said in a statement its team was shocked by the incident and was trying to obtain more information from the owners of the AquaDom about what had caused the incident.
- The company, which had offered glass elevator rides through the AquaDom aquarium, said it would also remain closed until further notice.
- Emergency services shut a major road next to the complex that leads from Alexanderplatz toward the Brandenburg Gate due to the large volume of water that had flooded out of the building.
- The aquarium was last refurbished in 2020, according to the website of the DomAquaree complex. During the upgrading work, all the water was drained from the tank and the fish were moved to aquariums in the basement of the building, where there is a breeding care facility for the fish, it said.
- Additional reporting by Sarah Marsh and Paul Carrel, Writing by Rachel More and Maria Sheahan, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Gareth Jones
- Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
- Journalists want to re-create Twitter on Mastodon. Mastodon is not into it. - Columbia Journalism Review
- Ever since Elon Musk completed his $45 billion takeover of Twitter last month, there has been a steady stream of users, including a number of journalists, signing up for Mastodon, an open-source alternative.
- No one controls Mastodon'--or rather, everyone controls their own version of it. There are thousands of servers running the software, and each one chooses which servers it ''federates,'' or exchanges information with. Don't like the users who belong to a specific server? Just block them.
- Unfortunately for some of the journalists who have joined the service, this mass-blocking (or ''defederation'') approach is now being applied to them. A server that caters specifically to journalists was set up recently by Adam Davidson, creator of NPR's Planet Money podcast. At last count, the server, called journa.host, had about thirteen hundred users, including some prominent journalists (and me). Earlier this week, a user of another network pointed out that about forty-five ''instances'' are blocking all content from members of journa.host.
- Among the reasons given for blocking users from the server are that it is allegedly populated by ''click-bait/tabloid journalists'' who ''can be expected to collect, search through, and misinterpret anything you say with the goal to share this publicly to an as big audience as possible, enabling hate and harassment to any one as long as it gives them clicks [sic].'' Others who have blocked the server say that its members are likely to be ''surveillance capitalists'' or ''mainstream propagandists.''
- The administrator of an academic server wrote that the journa.host server is ''willing to host some extremely scumbag journalist types and we don't need to be on their radar.'' Another said that ''reporters mining social media for fodder without the authors' knowledge or consent is a plague on every other social media platform, and I think [the Mastodon universe] should nip it in the bud.'' (For the record, I'm aware that some users might think that what I'm doing with this article also fits that description.)
- One journalist who is on Mastodon noted that there is also a cultural difference between the way people often behave on Twitter and expectations on Mastodon. ''I'm seeing a clear signal that this is at least in part about norms and conduct,'' he said, including ''a legacy insistence on sharing your articles, live-posting breaking news, etc.'' from journalists more used to Twitter. ''That doesn't fly here.'' Despite attempts by Mastodon veterans to educate new users about these differences, he said, many journalists are ''stomping around doing the same-old same-old.''
- There are approximately seven thousand Mastodon servers at the moment, so the fact that forty-five of them block one server of journalists isn't really the end of the world. But it remains to be seen whether Mastodon overall will welcome an influx of reporters fleeing Twitter and hoping to re-create what they had there.
- Note: An earlier version of this story linked to a website associated with KiwiFarms, an online forum known for harassing other users. That link has been removed. Also, a previous version said there were twelve thousand servers running Mastodon '-- that number has been updated based on official estimates.
- Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today. Mathew Ingram is CJR's chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. TOP IMAGE: An American Mastodon
- Tesla stock drops as concern about Elon Musk's Twitter focus grows - The Washington Post
- In the middle of an audio chat in part discussing the future of Twitter, CEO Elon Musk said he had to drop off.
- ''I have a Tesla meeting that I'm late for,'' he said on the Twitter Spaces chat Tuesday, which more than 300,000 people tuned in to.
- His abrupt departure is illustrative of concerns now dogging the new Twitter owner after his purchase of the company for $44 billion in late October. Helming the social media company has consumed much of Musk's schedule over the past several weeks; he has appeared on multiple audio chats and tweeted photos working from the company's San Francisco headquarters.
- Now, some Tesla investors are calling for Musk to hand over the reins at one of his companies as the electric vehicle company's stock plummets '-- raising concerns that the billionaire is stretched too thin. Tesla closed Wednesday at $156.80 per share, with an overall valuation of less than $500 billion, sharply down from when Musk signaled his interest in Twitter over the spring and Tesla was valued at over $1 trillion.
- Contributing to the losses, Musk sold about $3.5 billion worth of Tesla stock in recent days, according to a financial filing Wednesday night. That added to another more than $3.9 billion in Tesla shares sold by Musk in early November, according to the filings.
- CEO Elon Musk sold around $3.5 billion worth of Tesla stock, according to a financial filing on Dec. 14. (Video: Reuters)
- Shares of Tesla plunged again Friday, falling more than 4 percent by midday as Musk faced backlash online after Twitter suspended several journalists' accounts.
- ''Wake up tesla [board] '-- what is the plan? Who is running tesla and when is Elon coming back?'' tweeted Ross Gerber, a Tesla investor who supported Musk's Twitter bid, earlier in the week.
- He added in a tweet late Wednesday that Tesla needed to buy back shares ''to take advantage [of] the low share price Elon has created,'' as investors anticipated a potential further blow to the company's value on Thursday.
- Musk did not respond to a request for comment. Tesla and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.
- Musk tweeted in a reply to another post Tuesday that ''I will make sure Tesla shareholders benefit from Twitter long-term.''
- There is a view among some investors that Musk's recent stock sales might be the last big batch he sells, said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.
- ''But my view was it's wishful thinking because it's the boy who cried wolf again and again,'' he said, pointing to Musk's many Tesla stock sales this year.
- Musk's bid to buy Twitter has been controversial with Tesla investors since he first announced the plan this spring. The billionaire holds much of his wealth in Tesla shares, and it was immediately apparent he would have to leverage his position there to afford his purchase of the social media company. Tesla's stock fell, but many investors remained cautiously optimistic, or at least neutral, about Musk's deal.
- Investors cite their belief in Musk, including what they perceive as his relentless work ethic and ability to extract the most out of his employees. Musk has touted sleeping on the floor of the Tesla factory during a critical period when the company was struggling with production.
- Musk also brought that ethos to Twitter. Early into his tenure, a photo showed an employee using a sleeping bag on the office floor, along with a tweet using the hashtag #SleepWhereYouWork. Musk demanded that employees commit to an ''extremely hardcore'' Twitter or accept severance packages, effectively laying off those who did not agree to the new ethos.
- In his brief time as owner and chief executive of the company, Musk has gutted Twitter's workforce, disbanded an outside trust and safety council designed to help keep the site safe for users, and welcomed back previously banned accounts, including that of former president Donald Trump.
- Since he took over in October, Musk has faced questions about how long Twitter will continue to impose such heavy demands on his time. He has said he will eventually reduce his time at Twitter and find someone else to run it.
- Tesla has acknowledged in financial filings that Musk is occupied with his various business ventures, citing it as a risk to the business.
- ''We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, Technoking of Tesla and our Chief Executive Officer,'' the company has said. ''Although Mr. Musk spends significant time with Tesla and is highly active in our management, he does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla.''
- Already for some Tesla investors, it's adding up to be too much Twitter and not enough focus on Austin-based Tesla.
- ''We're in literally the best part of the company's history and it's being totally demolished by Twitter,'' Gerber said in an interview. ''I think the stock would rally big-time if they just said 'Elon's not CEO of Tesla anymore.' Now I don't want that. What I want is him back in Austin.'''
- If the BOD of tesla made an announcement on what's happening with tesla leadership. Someone should be interm CEO. The stock decline would end. It's that simple. @MartinViecha $tsla
- '-- Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) December 13, 2022Gary Black, managing partner of Future Fund LLC, a Tesla investor, called on the Tesla board to pressure Musk to find a leader for Twitter so he can refocus his energies on the electric vehicle company.
- ''He will realize soon (if not already) that his polarizing political views are hurting customer perceptions of [Tesla] EVs,'' he wrote in a tweet. ''Customers don't want their cars to be controversial. They want to be proud as hell to drive them '-- not embarrassed.'' He expressed hope Musk could ''focus on [Tesla] as CEO.''
- Tesla is facing a demand slowdown in China and rising costs of supplies to make the electric vehicles. Investors are concerned about Musk's split focus, Ives said. They had also been wary he might continue to sell Tesla stock to fund Twitter.
- Not since Steve Jobs with Apple or Jack Welch with GE has there been a CEO whose name is so closely tied to his company's brand, Ives said.
- ''The brand of Musk is so associated with Tesla,'' he said. ''And the Twitter circus show has been a black eye for Musk and therefore a black eye for Tesla.''
- Goldman Sachs lowered its price target for Tesla this week, often meaning analysts expect the stock to fall, even as it said the company ''remains well positioned for long-term growth.'' But deliveries are probably going to be lower than expected, analysts wrote. They called attention to media reports that Musk's actions have made the Tesla brand more polarizing.
- ''We believe that Tesla's brand has significant value related to the company's leadership position in clean energy and advanced technology,'' Goldman Sachs analysts wrote. ''Having consumer focus related to Tesla shift back to these core attributes of sustainability and technology will be important in our view if Tesla is to meet or exceed long-term investor expectations for Tesla.''
- Twitter's and Tesla's futures are now tied to each other '-- not just through Musk's leadership, but also through his wealth.
- ''The more Tesla stock goes down, it ultimately puts more pressure on the ability to fund further Twitter losses,'' Ives said.
- Even some of Musk's fans seem to be questioning him.
- Galileo Russell, a YouTuber who focuses on Tesla and has heaped praise on Musk, criticized Musk for wading into politics.
- ''I think @elonmusk getting too political is a mistake,'' he wrote in a tweet.
- Musk replied: ''Must be done for the future of civilization, without which nothing matters.'' Another account then asked Musk where that ranked on his list of priorities.
- Fans piled on, writing in tweets: ''Can we make Tesla #1 and woke mind virus #2?'' and ''Hope it's worth it.''
- Russell, also a Tesla investor, said he is standing by Musk, despite his critical tweet on Musk's turn toward politics.
- ''I hold all my Tesla shares, and continue to believe Elon is the best CEO on the planet and best person to run Tesla,'' he told The Washington Post. ''Short-term shareholders are a loud minority and will be washed out. This is a healthy and normal process as financial markets across the world rationalize.''
- Musk Kills Twitter Audio Feature After Talk With Journalists
- Elon Musk arrives at the justice center in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, July 13, 2021.Photo: Matt Rourke, File (AP)
- Twitter Spaces, the audio feature that allows people to participate in group chats using the social media platform, has been disabled and it's not clear whether it will ever return. The move comes after Elon Musk joined a group chat hosted by BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos on Thursday night, where the Twitter CEO spoke incoherently about his new rules around what the billionaire called ''doxxing.''
- Musk banned at least 10 different journalists on Thursday night that he alleges shared his location in real time. In reality, those journalists were merely reporting on the controversy surrounding the @ElonJets Twitter account, which pulls publicly available information about various aircraft.
- Notopoulos started a Twitter Spaces chat after the ban on journalists, and at least three of the people who had been banned were able to join the conversation, including Matt Binder from Mashable, Drew Harwell from the Washington Post, and Jack Sweeney, the 20-year-old college student behind ElonJets.
- Jason Calacanis, a venture capitalist who was brought on at Twitter during Musk's acquisition but says he not longer works for the company, also joined the conversation, berating Sweeney and raising wild hypotheticals. Calacanis asked Sweeney repeatedly how he would feel if Musk or his family members were killed, a rather inflammatory question given the fact that there's no evidence anyone has used @ElonJets to stalk or harass Musk.
- Musk has claimed @ElonJets puts his family in danger, but said as recently as a few weeks ago that he'd allow the Twitter account to stay active because he believes in free speech. That obviously changed this week and Musk has even said he'll take legal action against the man behind the account .
- G/O Media may get a commission
- Musk also joined the Twitter Spaces chat with Notopoulos, but didn't seem to make a lot of sense during his brief appearance.
- ''As I'm sure everyone who's been doxxed would agree, drawing real-time information about somebody's location is inappropriate and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them. And there's not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists, so-called journalists, and regular people. Everyone's going to be treated the same,'' Musk said.
- Journalists are obviously the targets of frequent doxxing, especially those who report on far-right movements like QAnon or Trumpism. But Musk seemed to believe his was a special case and that his circumstances were exceptional.
- ''They're not special because you're a journalist. You're a Twitter... you're a... you're a citizen. So, no special treatment. You doxx, you get suspended, end of story,'' Musk continued.
- The word ''doxxing'' has traditionally been used to mean the sharing of private information such as a home address or private phone number in a public manner, but the word can mean different things to different people.
- ''And ban evasion, or trying to be clever about it... like, oh, I posted a link to the real-time information is obviously a... that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning. That is... it's no different from paste... from actually sharing real-time information,'' Musk said, clearly struggling to make his point.
- The term ''ban evasion'' had a very specific meaning at Twitter until Musk took over, meaning someone starting a new account after getting banned on the platform. But Musk obviously has a different definition for that term too.
- Notopoulos asked if reporting on the controversy around ElonJets, a high-profile saga since it involves one of the world's richest people, was enough to ban someone under these new rules.
- ''When you're saying, posting links to it... some of the people, like Drew, and Ryan Mac from the New York Times, they were reporting on it in the course of pretty normal journalistic endeavors. You consider that, like, a tricky attempt at ban evasion?'' Notopoulos asked.
- ''You share a link to the real-time information... ban evasion, obviously,'' Musk said.
- ''Drew, I don't think you were posting the real-time information, right?'' Notopoulos asked Drew Harwell from the Washington Post.
- ''You're suggesting that we're sharing your address, which is not true. And you're suggesting...'' Harwell said.
- ''It is true,'' Musk interrupted.
- ''We never... I never posted your address,'' Harwell said.
- ''You posted a link to the address,'' Musk claimed, though it's not clear how a flight tracker might be called an address.
- Musk has recently claimed that someone was stalking his 2-year-old son, even posting a video of someone he claimed had stopped his car, and has tried to suggest this was a direct result of the ElonJets account. But open-source intelligence researchers have located where the video was taken, noting it was nowhere near an airport and roughly a day later than any flight by Musk's private jet.
- ''In the course of reporting about ElonJet we posted links to ElonJet, which are now not online, and are now banned on Twitter,'' Harwell explained.
- But then Harwell brought up the way in which Twitter was now blocking links to ElonJet on other social media platforms, similar to how the Hunter Biden laptop story was blocked in 2020, and Musk was clearly caught off-guard.
- ''Twitter also, of course, marks even the Instagram and Mastodon accounts of ElonJet as harmful, using... we have to acknowledge, using the same exact link-blocking technique that you have criticized as part of the Hunter Biden-New York Post story in 2020,'' Harwell said.
- ''It's no more acceptable for me.... for you than it is for me... it's the same thing,'' Musk said incoherently.
- There was an awkward silence on the chat as Harwell and the moderators were clearly trying to make sense of what the billionaire was trying to say.
- ''So, anyway...'' Musk continued.
- ''So it's unacceptable, what you're doing?'' Harwell asked.
- ''No, what... you doxx, you get suspended, end of story, that's it,'' Musk said, before leaving the call.
- Notopoulos tried to ask a follow-up question, but by then it had become clear Musk had left because he was flustered by getting asked real questions, rather than the more typical Twitter Space conversation where far-right Twitter users tell him how great he is.
- Elon Musk rages off Twitter Spaces
- Typically, after a live Twitter Spaces conversation has concluded, users are able to listen to the conversation. But the chat hosted by Notopoulos was cut short before she ended it herself, and isn't available in its entirety. Some Twitter and YouTube users have posted clips from the conversation that are still available as of this writing.
- ''Huh, appears the recording of this Space is strangely not available, funny that! Thanks to everyone who tuned in! Let's do it again sometime,'' Notopoulos tweeted .
- At this point it's obviously a futile exercise to try and make any sense of Twitter's rules. Musk's decision to keep Alex Jones banned, while reinstating several neo-Nazis, makes it clear that content moderation on the platform is based solely on the billionaire's whims.
- And Musk is completely within his rights to moderate Twitter however he likes, since he bought the platform for $44 billion. But he should stop saying he has some deeper commitment to ''free speech absolutism'' or whatever bullshit he's peddling this week. Own what you're really doing and people will have a little more respect for you.
- Newsrooms are scrambling to counter Elon Musk's bans | Semafor
- David Dee Delgado/ReutersNews organizations are scrambling to respond to Elon Musk's suspension from Twitter of prominent journalists whose coverage he objected to.
- On Thursday, Twitter suspended CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, the New York Times' Ryan Mac, and the Washington Post's Drew Harwell, as well as liberal commentator Keith Olbermann and reporters from Mashable and the Intercept.
- News organizations are now considering a range of options to respond, people familiar with their conversations said. They range from pulling coverage from Twitter, as CBS News did briefly in November, to retaliating against Twitter's advertising business: CNN executives have discussed whether their corporate parent, Warner Media Discovery, would stop its advertising on the platform.
- News organizations have also discussed dropping out of the Amplify program, in which they post videos to twitter and share in the revenue, or simply asking their staffers to stop contributing to the service.
- NBC News had already benched one of the journalists who has reported on Twitter and been harshly critical of Musk. NBC News temporarily suspended tech reporter Ben Collins from covering Musk on NBC and MSNBC airwaves. According to two sources, the network told Collins earlier this month that his criticism of Musk, which included comments about how the billionaire was purposefully trying to destroy Twitter, was not editorially appropriate. Collins continued to tweet his reporting about Twitter last night about the social network's ban of journalists.
- The New York Times released a statement Thursday evening calling the move ''questionable and unfortunate,'' and called for the tech company to offer an explanation about the suspension. Privately on Friday, the paper's leadership asked staff not to fight with Musk on Twitter.
- Meanwhile, the news organizations aren't sure whom to call to mediate the conflict. A CNN staffer told Semafor that network executives scrambled last night to reach Twitter after O'Sullivan was suspended, but almost all of the network's previous contacts at the company had been fired or resigned.
- Musk said that some received a 7-day suspension for "doxxing" him by sharing publicly available information about his private plane, though many of those suspended had simply covered the story about his ban on an account that followed the jet.
- Correction: Collins was pulled from NBC's air over Musk coverage earlier this month, not in response to the latest conflict.
- Norwegian filmmaker faces three years in prison for saying a man cannot become a lesbian - Rebel News
- In Norway, a filmmaker is facing up to three years in prison on criminal hate-speech charges for saying that a man cannot become a lesbian.
- Tonje Gjevjon, a lesbian filmmaker and actress, was informed on Nov. 17 that she was under investigation for a post on her Facebook page that read, "It's just as impossible for men to become a lesbian as it is for men to become pregnant. Men are men regardless of their sexual fetishes."
- The post was in response to a prominent Norwegian trans activist, Christine Jentoft, who is a transgender biological male who identifies as a ''lesbian mother'' and a ''gaymer.'' Jentoft had previously accused another woman, Christina Ellingsen, of transphobia for a similar claim. Ellingsen is also under investigation and faces three years in jail if found guilty, as reported by Rebel News.
- Gjevjon has said that she intentionally posted her Facebook message to draw attention to Norway's hate speech laws, which were amended in 2020 to add "gender identity and gender expression" under protected categories from hate speech, Reduxx reported .
- People found guilty of hate speech face a fine or up to one year in prison for private remarks, and a maximum of three years for public comments.
- Women's rights activists have argued that the amendment undermines free speech and expression in the country.
- Gjevjon has previously spoken out on controversial topics surrounding gender and women's rights, including confronting Norway's minister of culture and reality, Anette Trettebergstuen, claiming that misconstruing gender identity and biological sex has "harmful" and "discriminatory" implications for women, especially lesbians.
- "Will the equality minister take action to ensure that lesbian women's human rights are safeguarded, by making it clear that there are no lesbians with penises, that males cannot be lesbians regardless of their gender identity, and by tidying up the mess of the harmful gender policies left behind by the previous government?" Gjevjon asked.
- "I do not share an understanding of reality where the only two biological sexes are to be understood as sex. Gender identity is also important," Trettebergstuen replied.
- According to Reduxx, the first discrimination charge in the country that centered around gender identity was filed in 2018, centering around a biological male who complained about being asked not to use the showers in the women's locker rooms of a sports center.
- Homophobia: the conspiracy theory behind Russian fascism
- On 5 December Vladimir Putin decided it was worth his while to take a break from his disastrous invasion of Ukraine and find the time to enact a homophobic law. By the new tsar's decree, it is now an offence for Russians to promote or ''praise'' LGBTQ+ relationships, or suggest that they are ''normal''.
- The law covers the entire population of the Russian Federation: not just teachers in charge of children. Booksellers reacted by pulling ''decadent'' novels from their shelves. Lesbians in St Petersburg spoke of their ''mere existence'' becoming a crime.
- That Putin regards homophobia as a means of rallying a credulous population during a failing war is the best evidence I have seen of his imitation of the tyrannies of the 20th century. Only by making sexuality his main scapegoat does he show a glimmer of originality.
- Both the Nazis and the communists killed gay men. But they were not at the root of their conspiracy theories, which remained focused on Jews in the case of Germany and the bourgeoisie in the case of the Soviet Union. After Stalin criminalised sodomy in 1934, communists denounced it as a ''bourgeois degeneracy''. (The bourgeoisie came first.)
- Although operating on far deeper prejudices, Heinrich Himmler, the most homophobic of the Nazis, justified mass murder in concentration camps by saying that gay men prevented Germany becoming ''a nation of numerous children qualified to be a global power and master of the world.''
- The Putin regime's sole claim to originality is that it has elevated homophobia and made it central to the conspiracy theory behind Russian fascism.
- LGBTQ+ people have taken the place that Jews held in German Nazism. As with anti-Jewish prejudice, Putin's conspiracy theory works from above and from below. On the streets, the police don't investigate assaults or murders. They condone the attacks of the neo-Nazis and football hooligans the regime has incorporated as an auxiliary force.
- Yet as the Russian state pushes them to the margins of society, it fantasises that isolated and fearful LGBTQ+ people have a supernatural power.
- The Putinist ideology holds that their queer agenda controls the West, just as fascists held that a Jewish agenda controlled Western finance, media and government.
- Putin made my case for me in a vainglorious speech , in which he announced that he was annexing four Ukrainian provinces. (Vainglorious because his retreating armies were in no position to annex anything.)
- As he spoke in the Kremlin on 30 September, he built up a conspiracy theory layer by layer.
- Ukraine was not an independent country, Putin began , but a puppet state whose ''real masters'' lay in the ''dictatorship of the Western elites''.
- These elites were engaged in a ''complete denial of humanity [and] the overthrow of faith and traditional values.'' They wanted nothing less than ''outright satanism.'' I should explain that Russian Orthodox Christianity, that most servile of religions, grants Putin the belssing of divine support. Oppose him and you oppose the state religion and ''faith,'' and therefore you are a satanist at war with God.
- As you will have guessed, the satanism of the West manifests itself in its sexual diversity. Putin would not allow ''here, in our country, in Russia, instead of 'mum' and 'dad', to have 'parent No. 1', 'parent No. 2', 'No. 3'? Have they gone completely insane? Do we really want ... it drilled into children in our schools ... that there are supposedly genders besides women and men.''
- Scholars are reluctant in the extreme to apply the label ''fascist'' to Russia or any other modern autocracy. It does not fit into the narrow academic mode.
- Russia in the 2020s is not the same as Germany in the 1930s. Putinism was not an insurrectionary force when it took power, they rightly argue, and his regime is not the product of a revolutionary ideology.
- But Hitler's Germany was not the same as Mussolini's Italy, and yet we have no difficulty in describing both as ''fascist''. In the case of modern Russia, if ''fascist'' is forbidden, I cannot think of another word to describe it. The similarities with 20th century fascism abound.
- Let me count the ways. As in the past, the rejection of liberalism becomes a justification for oppression. The loss of the Soviet empire, compounded by the additional humiliation of the economic collapse of the 1990s, brought a desire for revenge akin to the German right's desire to avenge the humiliation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
- As in Italy and Germany, we have seen a flourishing of ''irredentism'' '' the doctrine that a nation has a right to occupy ''lost'' territories, The Ukraine war is the direct result of the Russian imperialist conviction that Ukrainians are de facto Russians, even when they fight to the death to prove that they are not.
- And then there is the hypermasculine cult of Putin and the older cult of death that glorifies in sending young men to die in wars, or in the butchering of civilians in genocidal military campaigns.
- Russia's war crimes and the descent of the Putin regime into dictatorship are producing a perceptible shift in opinion. Academic niceties are no longer standing in the way of seeing the world as it is.
- This week I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Z Generation by the academic specialist on Russian propaganda Ian Garner. (Out in the Spring from Hurst) Garner has no difficulty in subtitling his work ''Into the heart of Russia's fascist youth.''
- Through interviews and life stories, Garner shows how extraordinary levels of hate permeate a large section of the under-30s, who came of age under Putin's tutelage.
- Their xenophobic youth culture embraces the state's stab-in-the-back myth that Russians must avenge themselves on the nefarious Western powers that sabotaged the Soviet Union. It revels in a macho militarist idoleogy, in which the hatred of ''perversion'' is to the fore.
- Putin's latest repressive laws are the culmination of years of coercion and state-sponsored provocation. In 2010, the mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov, said that to allow a gay pride parade would be ''a satanic act'' (that word again), and branded homosexuality ''a social plague''.
- Garner writes that for the regime ''attacking the homosexual could reinforce an ill-defined sense of national wholeness. Only the 'traditional family' could incubate the growing generation of better, straight, masculine, and patriotic Russians.''
- It wasn't just the prejudices of Orthodox Christianity Putin appealed to. In Putin's mind, Russian men willing to fight and die must be straight men, and only straight Russian women could produce the sons willing to join them.
- Russia is not the place to repeat Gore Vidal's argument that, in the ancient world, ''pairs of dedicated lovers (Thebes' Sacred Legion, the Spartan buddy system) would fight more vigorously than reluctant draftees.'' (Although looking at the dismal performance of Russian draftees in combat, you might suspect that Vidal had a point.)
- State-controlled media have amplified the message that LGBTQ+ people are carriers of Western diseases for years
- In 2012, TV journalist Dmitry Kiselyov told an appreciative audience that ''imposing fines on gays for homosexual propaganda to minors is insufficient. They should be prohibited from donating blood, sperm and, in the case of a road accident, their hearts should be either buried or burned as unsuitable for the prolongation of life.''
- The quasi-religious concoction of nationalism, war, martyrdom, and rebirth being poured down the throats of Russia's young today won't die with Putin
- On the Russian equivalent of the Jerry Springer Show homosexuals headed the list of degenerates that included cheaters, alcoholics, liberals, the West, satanists (again), practitioners of black magic, parasites, atheists, and men who skip military service.
- To pin the blame only on the regime is to console yourself with the thought that homophobia is a top-down phenomenon. But on Telegram channels and social media it has a life of its own, turning ordinary young people into uber-patriotic and hyper-homophobic enemies of liberalism.
- Maybe the rumours about Putin's ill health are true and he won't live for long. Perhaps with luck, and Ukrainian valour, the Russian army will collapse. But Garner's ominous conclusion remains convincing, ''The quasi-religious concoction of nationalism, war, martyrdom, and rebirth being poured down the throats of Russia's young today will leave its mark.'' It won't die with Putin.
- On the whole Western governments have ignored the hate, as so many ignored or downplayed anti-Jewish hate in the Nazi era. I fear they are frightened of defending marginalised victims, just as Western governments feared defending Jews.
- Perhaps there is even a "prudent argument for staying silent. Foreign ministries might have concluded that speaking out would only make matters worse for persecuted Russians by confirming the conspiracy theory that they are a Western fifth column.
- If that were ever once true, it is not true now. Whatever happens to Putin, the West and Russia's beleaguered minorities will be facing a fascistic movement for years to come. Solidarity demands offers of asylum, and a promise that, if it is ever in our power, we will bring the persecutors to justice.
- In 2013 my friend and colleague Jamie Kirchick took on Russian homophobia in a delicious confrontation on the RT network. I don't believe the propagandists on Putin's pet TV station have ever had such a dressing down.
- Why Pay to Subscribe to Writing from London
- Journalism costs time and money and should be rewarded.
- All articles on this site are free for now but soon many will be subscriber only.
- Subscribers will have access to all content and archives.
- Only subscribers can comment and take part in online chats and Q & As.
- Berlin's giant AquaDom hotel aquarium containing 1,500 fish explodes - BBC News
- Media caption, Watch: Scenes of devastation after tank explosion at Berlin hotel
- By Michael Sheils McNamee in London and Jenny Hill and Michael Steininger in Berlin
- A giant aquarium containing a million litres of water in the lobby of the Radisson Blu in Berlin has burst, flooding the hotel and nearby streets.
- The "AquaDom" - home to 1,500 tropical fish - is 15.85m high (52 ft) and was described as the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world.
- Two people were injured by falling glass after the blast.
- Police said there had been "incredible" damage. Video showed an empty tank with water pouring into the hotel lobby.
- Guests have been moved out of the hotel following the incident at 05:50 (04:50 GMT).
- A spokesman for Berlin's fire brigade told the BBC the vast majority of the fish had died, and the cold weather had made rescue attempts more difficult. The tank had contained more than 100 different species.
- Outside the Radisson Blu, a pile of debris lay in front of what were the front doors, which now hang into the street - twisted at an angle by the force of the exploding tank.
- Image source, Reuters /Michele Tantussi
- Image caption, More than 100 fire fighters were in attendance at the incident in Berlin on Friday morning
- Paul Maletzki was staying on the fourth floor with his girlfriend.
- He described being woken up by a loud bang and shaking. When he looked down into the lobby, he saw water flowing across it. They and other guests were later escorted out of the hotel by armed police.
- The Mayor of Berlin Franziska Giffey went to the hotel to see the damage and described the tank burst as being like a tsunami.
- She expressed relief it had happened so early in the morning - saying an hour or so later, and the lobby and street outside would have been busy with visitors, many of them children.
- Sandra Weeser, a member of the German federal parliament who had been staying at the hotel, told local television that she had been woken up by "a kind of shock wave" and described the scene outside the hotel as a "picture of devastation".
- She said fish which may have been saved had frozen to death and recalled seeing a "large parrotfish lying on the ground, frozen".
- The aquarium was modernised two years ago, and there is a clear-walled lift built inside for use by visitors. Some of the rooms in the hotel are advertised as having views of it.
- Berlin's fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene and it was not clear what caused the break.
- It said it used rescue dogs to check the area inside the hotel for anyone potentially injured, with nobody found.
- Police said "massive amounts" of water were flowing into nearby streets and people in the area should drive cautiously.
- Image source, Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
- Image caption, The AquaDom in Berlin contained about 1,500 tropical fish and over a million litres of water
- A police source told local media there is no evidence the break was the result of a targeted attack.
- But there has been speculation that freezing temperature - which dropped as low as -6C overnight - may have caused a crack in the tank.
- Berlin's public transport authority said Karl-Liebknecht street outside the hotel had been closed off due to "an extreme amount of water on the road". Trams service in the area was also stopped.
- AquaDom was opened in December 2003 and was given the Guinness World Record for being the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.
- According to reports at the time of its construction, it cost about '¬12.8m (£11.2m) to build.
- Clarification: An earlier version said the aquarium was operated by SeaLife. Although the aquarium is in the same building complex as Berlin SeaLife, they are not responsible for the AquaDom
- Oregon's LGBTQ community worries a new law will keep them from obtaining guns. : NPR
- Mia Rose, a trans person of color and former licensed firearms dealer, holds her custom-built AR-15 rifle in her home in Eugene, Ore., on Dec. 12, 2022. Celeste Noche for NPR hide caption
- toggle caption Celeste Noche for NPR Mia Rose, a trans person of color and former licensed firearms dealer, holds her custom-built AR-15 rifle in her home in Eugene, Ore., on Dec. 12, 2022.
- Celeste Noche for NPR Some of Oregon's trans and queer gun supporters are worried that a new state law will prevent them from buying firearms.
- The law, Measure 114, grants county sheriffs and police chiefs discretion to determine who qualifies to purchase a firearm under a new permit-to-purchase program.
- But Measure 114 lacks criteria clearly defining what disqualifies applicants, details on what makes someone a threat and what data can be used by law enforcement in making that decision. That's a problem for activists who have critiqued law enforcement, particularly in the racial justice protests that took place over the past two years.
- "I just feel like if I was to go online and say like the police are terrorists or something ... [the police] would be like, 'Well, you seem like you might not be fit for this community to be armed,' " says Mia Rose, a trans person of color and former licensed firearms dealer. "If they were to get that information that you got snatched up off the street [arrested during the Portland protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020], I would assume that the law would say they could deny your purchase, or deny your right to have a permit."
- Mia Rose holds her custom-built AR-15 rifle in her home in Eugene, Ore. Celeste Noche for NPR hide caption
- toggle caption Celeste Noche for NPR Mia Rose holds her custom-built AR-15 rifle in her home in Eugene, Ore.
- Celeste Noche for NPR Rose focuses her efforts on sales and training for LGBTQ+ and black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). She said she and her friends were initially drawn to guns out of fears that grew during the Trump presidency. Recent shootings like those in the LGBTQ Club Q last month in Colorado Springs, Colo., that left 5 dead or at a school in Uvalde, Texas, in May that killed 19 students and 2 teachers have solidified their desire for armed community defense '' they feel police are not there to protect them, or even willing to protect them.
- "Around 2016 ... there was an increase in white supremacist violence on places of worship, like mosques or like gay bars," says Rose. "And then every time there's a shooting, more and more people, especially in the queer and trans community, they see this and it's like, OK, let's start to do things."
- Activist Ross Eliot shares the desire for community defense and opposition to Measure 114. Rose and Eliot worry the law will disproportionately inhibit outspoken marginalized groups from purchasing guns, while doing little to prevent domestic terrorism. This is due to a confluence of factors, from the rise of 3D printed 'ghost-guns' to reports of ties by some Oregon law enforcement officials to right-wing groups like Patriot Prayer and the Oath Keepers.
- Mia Rose holds her custom built AR-15 in her home in Eugene, Ore. Celeste Noche for NPR hide caption
- toggle caption Celeste Noche for NPR "Given abuses widely documented among law enforcement, [Measure 114] would create an environment ripe for further corruption," Eliot says. "Police could easily restrict permits to preferred individuals and deny others without oversight to determine if people from particular racial or ethnic groups, religious backgrounds, LGBTQ status or political affiliations were being screened out."
- Proponents of the law say it came as a response to mass shootings and hate crimes. Liz McKanna, chairwoman of Lift Every Voice Oregon, the group that wrote Measure 114, highlights that states that have passed similar laws have statistically shown decreases in gun deaths and injuries.
- McKanna discounted the concerns about police bias.
- "The state police, I believe, will be drafting regulations that might clarify that law," she said. "But they're intended to be objective, and that's something that's left to the whim of law enforcement. You also ask why did we leave it to law enforcement? The statute says that it can be, you know, the sheriff or police or their designee. And it's still possible that the legislature would choose another agency to actually be the permit agent."
- McKanna points toward the requirement outlined by the new state law that there is to be an annual publication by police of the number of permit applications made, approved, and denied, as well as the reason for denial. She says the aim of the publication is to function as a mechanism to root out bias.
- Some of Mia Rose's firearms gear, including an AR-15 and ballistic vest at her home. Celeste Noche for NPR hide caption
- toggle caption Celeste Noche for NPR Some of Mia Rose's firearms gear, including an AR-15 and ballistic vest at her home.
- Celeste Noche for NPR However, any data published beyond the metrics above, including factors such as race, gender, or sexuality, will be decided by state police.
- "We're leaving that up to them," she said. "It may be important for ensuring that there's not a disparate impact. And so that's one of the issues that's being discussed. ... I can't answer how it's going to be resolved, but we are confident that it will be resolved."
- When asked what criteria would be used to deny applicants under the new law, and if social media, political views, or condemnation of law enforcement could be used in making the determination, Oregon State Police replied with a link to the Firearms Instant Check System '-- procedures the agency says have been in place since 1996.
- For now, the measure's opponents have won a partial victory.
- Last week a state judge blocked Measure 114 from taking effect only hours after a federal judge gave it the go-ahead, albeit with a delay in its original Dec. 8 implementation. The state judge upheld his temporary restraining order at a hearing earlier this week.
- Attorneys for the state requested a hearing for Dec. 23.
- Here Comes The Job Shock: Philadelphia Fed Admits US Jobs "Overstated" By At Least 1.1 Million | ZeroHedge
- Regular readers are well aware that back in July, Zero Hedge first (long before it became a running theme among so-called "macro experts") pointed out that a gaping 1+ million job differential had opened up between the closely-watched and market-impacting, if easily gamed and manipulated, Establishment Survey and the far more accurate if volatile, Household Survey - the two core components of the monthly non-farm payrolls report.
- We first described this divergence in early July, when looking at the June payrolls data, we found that the gap between the Housing and Establishment Surveys had blown out to 1.5 million starting in March when "something snapped." We described this in "Something Snaps In The US Labor Market: Full, Part-Time Workers Plunge As Multiple Jobholders Soar."
- Since then the difference only got worse, and culminated earlier this month when the gap between the Establishment and Household surveys for the November dataset nearly doubled to a whopping 2.7 million jobs, a bifurcation which we described in "Something Is Rigged: Unexplained, Record 2.7 Million Jobs Gap Emerges In Broken Payrolls Report."
- Whether this divergence was due to wrong seasonal adjustments (a remnant of the overreaction taken by the Dept of Labor following the covid crunch to normalize for a new normal labor market), due to erroneous Birth-Death assumptions (here too, the Dept of Labor was assuming early cycle new business creation which clearly is wrong with the economy late cycle and millions of businesses shutting down, ignoring the open PPP fraud that took place in early/mid-2000s as everyone "opened up" businesses to get free money from the government), due to the Establishment Survey inability to tell the difference between full, part and multiple-jobs - as a reminder we first showed that since March, the US had lost 400K full-time jobs offset by far lower paying part-time jobs as well as double-counted multiple jobholders...
- ... due to the record high rate of estimation - recall the 49% Establishment survey response rate was much lower than the 70-75% rate typical in November, meaning the Dept of Labor was literally making numbers up to "complete" the survey...
- ... or some other reason, perhaps including the Biden admin tapping certain Bureau of Labor Statistics officials on the shoulder and advising them to show strong numbers if they want to keep their... well... jobs, we did not know, but we did know that according to the Household Survey, just 12,000 jobs were created since March, while according to the Establishment Survey - which moves markets and sets Fed policy - the increase in jobs over the same period was 2.692 million!
- We bring all this up again because late on Dec 13, the Philadelphia Fed published something shocking: as part of the regional Fed's quarterly reassessment of payrolls in the form of an "early benchmark revision of state payroll employment", the Philly Fed confirmed what we have been saying since July, namely that US payrolls are overstated by at least 1.1 million, and likely much more!
- As the Philly Fed notes, "estimates by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia indicate that the employment changes from March through June 2022 were significantly different in 33 states and the District of Columbia compared with current state estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES). Early benchmark estimates indicated higher changes in four states, lower changes in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and lesser changes in the remaining 17 states.
- Wait, the Philly Fed tabulates jobs? Isn't that the jobs of the BLS?
- Why yes, the BLS does that every month. The problem is that to successfully publish a report within days after any given month ends, the BLS report gives up in accuracy what it makes up in speed. Far more accurate reports are available elsewhere, they just come with a big lag. This is where the Philadelphia Fed comes in: from the latest quarterly report...
- Our estimates incorporate more comprehensive, accurate job estimates released by the BLS as part of its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program to augment the sample data from the BLS's CES that are issued monthly on a timely basis. All percentage change calculations are expressed as annualized rates. Read more about our methodology. Learn more about interpreting our early benchmark estimates.
- Ok, ok, what did this "more accurate", "more comprehensive" report find? It found that...
- In the aggregate, 10,500 net new jobs were added during the period rather than the 1,121,500 jobs estimated by the sum of the states; the U.S. CES estimated net growth of 1,047,000 jobs for the period.
- Remember what we said in July when we first looked at the March-June divergence between the Household and Establishment survey: we said that "since March, the Establishment Survey shows a gain of 1.124 million jobs while the Household Survey shows an employment loss of 347K!" Said otherwise, we found that payrolls "calculated" by the Establishment Survey were overestimated by 1.5 million. Shockingly, the Philly Fed seems to agree, and reports that instead of the roughly 1.1 million jobs reported by the BLS, only 10,500 new jobs were added!
- Payroll jobs in the nation remained essentially flat from March through June 2022 after adjusting for QCEW data:
- Less than the 3.0 percent growth indicated by the sum of the statesLess than the 2.8 percent growth indicated by the U.S. CES estimatesThis is shown graphically in the chart below: specifically, the analysis looks at the quarter in the red box, where the green line, or the more accurate "early benchmark" revision of official data, dipped decidedly below the CES trendline (i.e., the nonfarm payrolls).
- For those who are too lazy to click on the source report, here is the summary page:
- Of course, the above analysis only looks at the March-June period. What about subsequent months and quarters? Well, we will have to wait at least 3 months to get the June-Sept data, but using the same approach which we now know works, and which looks at the divergence between Household and Establishment surveys, it is safe to say that the job "overstating" which was 1.5 million in June according to Zero Hedge and 1.1 million according to the Philly Fed, has almost doubled to 2.7 million from March to November. The only question is what the final, far more accurate Philly Fed estimate will be when it is published some time in 6 months time.
- But an even bigger question is when does the BLS realize (or rather admit) what is going on and engages in a shotgun backward revision of data? The most likely answer is that the BLS will simply wait until one of its annual historical data revision periods, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics quietly admits that historical data was higher by a few million, and re-benchmarks current months going forward as if nothing had happened. In the meantime, however, the Fed is shaping monetary policy using the clearly flawed assumption that the US labor market is "hot", "tight" and "strong", when in reality we now know that between March and June, monthly payrolls were overstated by about 350,000. This matters because this is what the BLS reported for payrolls for those months:
- April 368KMay 386KJune 293KNow take those numbers and adjust them to subtract an average of 350K from each month (to get the revised Philly Fed payroll over this period) and you get this:
- April 18KMay 36KJune 57KAnd visually.
- Still think the Fed would be hiking 75bps this summer if instead of an average monthly job gain of 350K, Powell was seeing zero monthly payroll increases?
- And even more importantly, now that the cat is out of the bag and the Philly Fed has introduced this huge credibility issue in all recent payrolls data, how long until this becomes a political issue, and how long until Republicans - who take control of the House in January - start hearings to demonstrate to the US that the collapse in the labor market did not start with the Republican takeover but was well in place last summer.
- And finally, how long until the Fed - which made it clear that it is no longer focused purely on inflation numbers (which are sliding fast anyway) but will also be looking at clearly wrong jobs data - makes it a point that the US labor market is in far worse shape, it is in fact contracting, than it was when it decided to hike 75bps several times in a row?
- Source: Early Benchmark Revisions of State Payroll Employment
- FIFA rejects Zelensky's World Cup plea '' CNN '-- RT Sport News
- The Ukrainian leader reportedly requested to share a video message before Sunday's showpiece
- World football governing body FIFA has turned down a request by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to appear via video link ahead of the World Cup final in Qatar on Sunday, according to CNN.
- Zelensky is said to have offered to share a message of ''world peace'' before the game between defending champions France and Argentina at the Lusail Stadium, which is set to be watched by hundreds of millions around the world.
- CNN reports that the plea was dismissed by FIFA, leaving Zelensky's office ''surprised by the negative response.''
- Talks are said to be ongoing between FIFA and Ukraine despite the apparent snub, and it is unclear if the message would have been live or pre-recorded.
- FIFA has been forced to tackle the issue of politics infringing on football throughout the tournament in Qatar.
- Ahead of kick-off, several European teams vowed that their captains would wear 'One Love' armbands in support of LGBT rights and other causes.
- They were forced to back down under threat of sanction from FIFA, which announced its own array of messages for the tournament, including ''no discrimination'' and ''football unites the world.''
- FIFA had urged teams to ''focus on the football'' in Qatar in a letter addressed to the 32 competing nations before the tournament.
- The Ukrainian request for publicity is perhaps unsurprising given the lengths to which Zelensky and his office have gone to garner attention for their cause amid the conflict with Russia.
- The Ukrainian leader has even made video addresses to events such as the Grammy Awards in the US.
- In sporting terms, Zelensky met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach in Kiev earlier this year, and shared a phone call with him again this week.
- FIFA's apparent stance on keeping politics out of football comes despite a ban imposed on all Russian teams from its competitions, which has been in place since the end of February.
- The sanctions deprived the Russian team of the chance to qualify for the Word Cup in Qatar.
- On the eve of the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino also used an appearance at a G20 summit to call on Russia and Ukraine to consider ''a temporary ceasefire for one month for the duration of the World Cup, or at least the implementation of some humanitarian corridors or anything that could lead to the resumption of dialogue as a first step to peace.''
- Russia was the successful host of the last edition of the FIFA World Cup in 2018, which culminated in the final attended by dignitaries including Infantino and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
- Conservatives complain abortion bans not enforced, want jail time for pill 'trafficking' - The Washington Post
- Six months after their Supreme Court victory, conservatives complain that strict new laws are not being sufficiently enforced
- Updated December 14, 2022 at 7:30 a.m. EST | Published December 14, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EST
- In Smith County, a heavily conservative county in eastern Texas, District Attorney Jacob Putman has said he would be "proud" to enforce the state's near-total abortion ban. (Jeffrey McWhorter)The largest antiabortion organization in Texas has created a team of advocates assigned to investigate citizens who might be distributing abortion pills illegally.
- Students for Life of America, a leading national antiabortion group, is making plans to systematically test the water Erin Brockovich-style in several large U.S. cities, searching for contaminants they say result from medication abortion.
- And Republican lawmakers in Texas are preparing to introduce legislation that would require internet providers to block abortion pill websites in the same way they can censor child pornography.
- Nearly six months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, triggering abortion bans in more than a dozen states, many antiabortion advocates fear that the growing availability of illegal abortion pills has undercut their landmark victory. Now they are grasping for new ways to crack down on those breaking the law.
- Antiabortion advocates had hoped the June decision would significantly decrease the number of abortions in the United States. But abortion rights activists have ramped up efforts to funnel abortion pills '-- a two-step regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol that is widely regarded as safe '-- into states with strict new bans, working with rapidly expanding international suppliers as well as U.S.-based distributors to meet demand.
- The overturn of Roe v. Wade is bringing more attention to the abortion pill, which has become one of the most accessible methods for abortion. (Video: The Washington Post)
- Now many conservatives are complaining that the abortion bans are not being sufficiently enforced, even though much of the illegal activity is happening in plain sight, as abortion rights advocates seek to reach women in need. Leaders interviewed on both sides of the debate had not heard of any examples of people charged for violating abortion bans since Roe fell, a crime punishable by at least several years in prison across much of the South and Midwest.
- ''Everyone who is trafficking these pills should be in jail for trafficking,'' said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who has started to speak with Republican governors about the prevalence of illegal abortion pill networks. ''It hasn't happened, but that doesn't mean it won't.''
- Abortion bans include penalties only for people involved in facilitating illegal abortions, not for the pregnant women themselves.
- The push on the right for enforcement reflects the extent to which both sides of the abortion battle are recalibrating after a tumultuous year that has challenged many long-held assumptions about the politics of the issue '-- and left the state of abortion access in the United States hard to assess. Interviews with more than 30 of the most influential advocacy group leaders, policymakers and litigators on the abortion issue found that far from settling the decades-old abortion question, the fall of Roe has triggered a major new phase of combat set to play out over the next few years in courtrooms, state capitals and the next presidential election.
- While a study from the Society of Family Planning found that at least 10,000 fewer clinical abortions took place in the first two months after Roe was overturned, researchers can't say how many women were able to obtain pills through the mail. One major pill supplier in Mexico estimated that her organization is on track to help terminate 20,000 pregnancies by year's end, while another Europe-based group says that, after the Supreme Court decision, it received roughly 3,600 queries per month, with about two-thirds of those coming from women in states with abortion bans.
- Many Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to further restrict abortion since the June ruling, especially after this year's midterm elections confirmed that abortion rights are popular with voters across party lines. Backlash from the court decision was widely credited with helping Democrats score some critical wins, including a state legislative majority in Michigan and control of the Pennsylvania House, while voters even in heavily Republican states turned out in droves to oppose antiabortion ballot measures.
- How abortion access fared in the midterm elections in nine states
- Abortion rights advocates say they are exploring 2024 ballot measures in at least a dozen states to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions. Momentum is building in many states with strict abortion bans, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio and South Dakota, according to several national abortion rights advocates with knowledge of early conversations across the country.
- ''Democrats should not be shy about being bold and using every tool to fight for individual rights,'' said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who won easy reelection in a state that also voted to protect abortion rights through a ballot measure. States that have the ability to do a Michigan-style ballot initiative ''should certainly be exploring it,'' Whitmer said.
- While abortion rights advocates appear largely united in their approach, the rise of abortion pills and the election results have combined to highlight tensions among conservatives over what to do next.
- The next few months could pit the ''true believers'' '-- those who genuinely care about limiting the number of abortions '-- against those who back antiabortion policies to score political points, said Jonathan Mitchell, the antiabortion lawyer behind the novel Texas abortion ban that took effect in 2021.
- Mitchell said he has been involved in discussions about aggressive and unconventional measures that he thinks are necessary if Republicans are determined to actually limit the number of abortions. But he is unsure whether Republicans will have the political will to pursue those ideas.
- ''Especially after this election, a lot of Republicans will want to change the subject, and going after abortion pills is not the way to change the subject,'' he said.
- Antiabortion advocates search for an 'airtight' case
- After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Texas antiabortion advocates stepped up efforts to find local prosecutors most inclined to enforce antiabortion laws.
- They quickly zeroed in on Jacob Putman, the prosecutor in Tyler, Tex., a small city that bisects 200 miles of mostly open road between Dallas and Shreveport, La. Larger than a lot of other heavily conservative counties in Texas, several Texas antiabortion advocates said, Putman's district has the resources to investigate and prosecute those who violate the state's near-total abortion ban.
- Putman is also staunchly opposed to abortion.
- Since the June ruling, the prosecutor has made several public statements expressing his commitment to enforcing the state's abortion ban. Growing up in Smith County, he told The Washington Post, he volunteered at his local crisis pregnancy center, a religiously affiliated organization that aims to dissuade women from having abortions. He and his wife have donated money to the group. As the county prosecutor, he said, he would be ''proud'' to bring a case against someone caught violating the abortion ban, a felony punishable in Texas by up to life in prison.
- But Putman hasn't had any of those cases. And he doesn't expect to have one anytime soon, in part, he said, because it's difficult to determine who is breaking the law and where the crimes are being committed.
- ''If it's happening in my county, I'm not aware of it,'' said Putman, sitting beneath a mounted pair of horns from a Texas Longhorn. ''In order for one of these cases to get to a prosecutor's office, someone is going to have to tell, and I don't know who that would be.''
- Texas Right to Life, the state's largest antiabortion group, is positioning itself to help. A designated team within the organization has been searching for an ''airtight'' case to bring to a district attorney like Putman who is willing to prosecute, said John Seago, the group's president.
- ''We're not going to get involved until we have evidence, something credible we can take,'' Seago said. ''We're trying to actually confirm who's involved in these networks, how it's being done.''
- While there hasn't been much evidence of enforcement since Roe fell, there is a long history in the United States of prosecuting people for pregnancy-related crimes. Between 2000 and 2020, 61 people were criminally investigated or arrested for either ending their own pregnancy or helping someone else end theirs, according to a preliminary report from If/When/How, a legal advocacy group that supports abortion rights.
- Abortion rights advocates say new efforts to prosecute will exacerbate the fear and isolation of those facing unwanted pregnancies in states where abortion is banned.
- ''It will paralyze people from getting help and health care when they need it and are entitled to it,'' said Aimee Arrambide, executive director at Avow Texas, an abortion rights advocacy group.
- Seago said he hopes the upcoming legislative session in Texas '-- which has established itself as a testing ground for new and aggressive antiabortion legislation '-- will yield tools that will help antiabortion advocates in their fight against illegal abortion pills.
- Texas lawmakers are drafting legislation that would compel internet providers to block people from accessing abortion pill websites like Europe-based Aid Access and other online pharmacies within state borders, said Seago, though even antiabortion lawyers say that effort would raise free speech concerns. Another proposal would refashion the enforcement mechanism behind the six-week abortion ban that took effect in Texas in 2021, empowering private citizens to enforce the law through civil litigation at any stage of pregnancy, not just after six weeks.
- National advocacy groups are also pivoting to focus on enforcement. Early in the new year, Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said she plans to strategize with antiabortion governors about how best to deal with the illegal pill networks.
- She said she has already discussed the matter with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, one of several GOP governors to sign a strict abortion ban and win reelection this year. According to Dannenfelser, Kemp is widely supportive and ''already engaged'' on the abortion pill issue.
- ''Every governor, especially governors who have passed ambitious laws, have it in their interest to make sure that laws in their states aren't de facto overturned by pills going into every part of their state, through organizations that are directly violating the law,'' Dannenfelser said.
- Andrew Isenhour, Kemp's deputy director of communications, declined to comment on any potential legislation, adding that the governor remains ''committed to supporting life at all stages and protecting the lives of the unborn.''
- Some are exploring other unorthodox approaches.
- Antiabortion advocates filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November challenging its decades-old approval of one of the pills used in medication abortions. Their arguments have been widely discredited by legal experts.
- Students for Life of America is focused on the environmental harm it says is caused by medication abortions, specifically from fetal remains flushed down the toilet, as often happens when women take abortion pills at home. (There is no direct evidence that abortion pills contaminate the water supply, and environmental experts have dismissed the arguments made by Students for Life.)
- At an internal meeting in Indianapolis on Nov. 30 attended virtually by The Post, employees expressed frustration that state officials are not already testing the water for contaminants related to abortion pills.
- ''You mentioned Erin Brockovich,'' said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins, speaking to another member of her advocacy team and referencing the famous legal clerk who exposed groundwater contamination around a major gas and electric facility. ''Let's just get the damn water samples ourselves since we already know they're not doing it.''
- By the end of the meeting, the group had developed several action items, including finding a lab willing to help with testing, and recruiting a team of ''student investigators.'' Hawkins said she will be meeting with Republican attorneys general in the new year to discuss issuing statewide injunctions against abortion pills, based on the group's claims about toxic wastewater.
- Abortion rights advocates are newly energized coming out of the midterms, eager to capitalize on public opinion and build on the gains they made in Michigan, Kentucky and beyond after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision invalidated Roe.
- ''From the day that the Dobbs opinion was leaked, until right now, a new fury has burned through the women of this country,'' said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an outspoken proponent of abortion rights, who says she is committed to helping more states pass abortion protections.
- As abortion proponents turn their attention to 2024, ballot initiatives that aim to protect abortion in state constitutions are now the ''strategy du jour,'' said Jessica Arons, senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
- But ballot measures should not be seen as a cure-all, several abortion rights advocates warned. Because of their high price tag '-- abortion rights advocates spent tens of millions of dollars on the one in Michigan '-- these campaigns can't happen everywhere simultaneously, said the ACLU's Rachel Sweet, who ran the abortion rights campaigns this year in Kansas and Kentucky.
- In several states that allow citizens to add issues to the ballot by collecting signatures, conservative lawmakers are already discussing various proposals to make it harder to put issues directly to voters. Soon after the midterms, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose introduced an effort to require 60 percent of voters to pass certain constitutional amendments, instead of the current system, which requires a simple majority. LaRose dismissed claims that his proposal was related to the abortion issue, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
- As they push for more restrictive bans in states such as Florida and North Carolina, antiabortion advocates across the country will have to contend with moderate Republicans who have been increasingly vocal on the issue. In Indiana, West Virginia and South Carolina '-- three states that have convened for legislative sessions since Roe fell '-- Republicans struggled to agree on a path forward on abortion, as moderate factions within the caucus pressed for less severe restrictions.
- West Virginia Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo (R), a practicing physician, brought debate on the issue to a standstill in July, refusing to back a bill that included criminal penalties for doctors. In private conversations with other Republican leaders, he said, he warned of a massive public backlash.
- ''If Republicans aren't willing to come and meet a little bit more towards the middle, then what they're actually doing is going to hurt their cause and cause a major swing in the opposite direction,'' said Takubo, who ultimately voted for a near-total abortion ban.
- Both sides of the debate are now gearing up for the 2024 presidential election, which will be critical for the future of abortion access. While President Biden has been limited in his ability to protect abortion access, an antiabortion president could significantly alter the current landscape, cracking down on abortion pills in both Democratic- and Republican-led states.
- Under a Republican president, the FDA could alter the restrictions around abortion pills. For example, the agency could try to limit the period of time when patients can legally take abortion pills, from 10 weeks of pregnancy to six or seven, said Greer Donley, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who specializes in abortion '-- a move that would force tens of thousands of people every year to have surgical, rather than medication, abortions.
- National antiabortion advocates are also carefully considering the ways in which a president could restrict illegal pill networks. An antiabortion president could direct several agencies to bear down on the issue, including the U.S. Postal Service, as many pills are sent through the mail, and the Department of Justice, said Stephen Billy, vice president of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
- When Dannenfelser meets with Republicans who may run for president in 2024, she said she asks them first about a national abortion ban, preferring candidates who advocate for a ban after six, 13 or 15 weeks of pregnancy.
- Her next question is about the ''cataclysmic problem of the abortion pill.''
- ''We don't have to dictate their solution,'' Dannenfelser said. ''But they have to have one.''
- The U.S. fight over abortion
- Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed officials in all 7 states targeted by Trump allies in 2020 election | CNN Politics
- Special counsel Jack Smith has issued a subpoena to local officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for information related to the 2020 election, a spokesperson for the county told CNN.
- ''Yes, we received a subpoena from the Department of Justice's special counsel regarding the 2020 election. We have nothing further to share or provide,'' said Amie Downs, the county's communications director.
- The subpoena sent to Allegheny County is the latest in a string of requests for information sent by Smith, who is now overseeing the Justice Department's sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- Smith's team has now sent subpoenas to local and state officials in all seven of the key states '' Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin '' targeted by former President Donald Trump Trump and his allies as part of their bid to upend Joe Biden's legitimate victory.
- Those efforts included putting forward slates of pro-Trump electors and filing baseless lawsuits. CNN reported this summer that the DOJ issued numerous subpoenas and was seeking information in all seven states where Trump's campaign convened the false electors as part of the effort to subvert the Electoral College.
- In November 2020, Trump's campaign team fought in court to throw out over 10,000 absentee ballots in Philadelphia and Allegheny counties that were missing dates or names. Those attempts were rejected by Pennsylvania's Supreme Court, which argued in its opinion that ''while constituting technical violations of the Election Code, [the mistakes] do not warrant the wholesale disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvanian voters.''
- Allegheny County, Pennsylvania's second largest, helped carry President Joe Biden to a 81,000 vote victory in the state.
- The recent subpoenas come as a group of election security advocates have called for Smith and other federal agencies to investigate a series of voting system breaches in multiple states carried out by allies of Trump after the 2020 election.
- The group has requested a federal probe into what it calls a ''multi-state conspiracy to copy voting software,'' pointing to reported breaches in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith last month to oversee parts of the Justice Department's criminal investigations into attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. He will likely be tasked with making policy decisions around whether to charge Trump.
- Smith and his team of 20 prosecutors are moving fast in the pair of criminal probes. Since Thanksgiving, he has brought a number of close Trump associates before a grand jury in Washington, including two former White House lawyers, three of Trump's closest aides, and his former speechwriter Stephen Miller.
- This story has been updated with additional information.
- Twitter Suspends Journalists' Accounts, Some of Whom Wrote About Musk - The New York Times
- Technology | Twitter Suspends Accounts of Half a Dozen Journalists https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/technology/twitter-suspends-journalist-accounts-elon-musk.htmlThe social media service, which is owned by Elon Musk, said that it suspends accounts that ''violate the Twitter rules'' but did not provide details.
- As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
- The Twitter profiles of three journalists whose accounts were suspended on Thursday. Credit... Photo illustration by The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO '-- Twitter suspended the accounts of roughly half a dozen prominent journalists on Thursday, the latest change by the social media service under its new owner, Elon Musk.
- The accounts suspended included Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist; Donie O'Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable; Tony Webster, an independent journalist; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and the political journalist Keith Olbermann. It was unclear what the suspensions had in common; each user's Twitter page included a message that said it suspended accounts that ''violate the Twitter rules.''
- The moves came a day after Twitter suspended more than 25 accounts that tracked the planes of government agencies, billionaires and high-profile individuals, including that of Mr. Musk. Many of the accounts were operated by Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old college student and flight tracking enthusiast who had used Twitter to post updates about the location of Mr. Musk's private plane using publicly available information.
- Last month, Mr. Musk had said he would allow the account that tracked his private plane to remain on Twitter, though he said it amounted to a security threat. ''My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,'' he said in a tweet at the time.
- But he changed his mind this week, after he claimed a car in which one of his sons was traveling was accosted by a ''crazy stalker.'' On Wednesday, Mr. Musk tweeted that any account that posted ''real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.''
- Some of the journalists whose accounts were suspended had written about the accounts that tracked the private planes or had tweeted about those accounts. Some have also written articles that have been critical of Mr. Musk and his ownership of Twitter. Many of them had tens of thousands of followers on the platform.
- Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment and Twitter did not respond to an email for comment. In a tweet, Mr. Musk said Twitter's rules on ''doxxing'' '-- which refers to the sharing of someone's personal documents, including information such as their address '-- ''apply to 'journalists' as well as everyone else.'' He did not elaborate.
- ''Tonight's suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times's Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate,'' said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The Times. ''Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists' accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.''
- A representative for The Post did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Kristine Coratti Kelly, a CNN spokeswoman, said the suspensions were ''concerning but not surprising'' and that ''Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses'' it. In an appearance on CNN after his account was suspended, Mr. O'Sullivan said Twitter's actions could intimidate journalists who cover companies owned by Mr. Musk.
- ''I was disappointed to see that I was suspended from Twitter without explanation,'' Mr. Webster, whose account was suspended, said in an emailed comment. He added that he had tweeted about the Twitter account that tracked Mr. Musk's private plane before his suspension.
- Mr. Binder, the Mashable journalist, said that he had been critical of Mr. Musk but had not broken any of Twitter's listed policies.
- After his suspension from Twitter, Mr. Sweeney turned to Mastodon, an alternative social network. After Mastodon used Twitter to promote Mr. Sweeney's new account on Thursday, Twitter suspended Mastodon's account. As some journalists shared the news of Mastodon's suspension, their own accounts were suspended.
- Mr. Musk, who purchased Twitter in October for $44 billion, had said that his takeover would expand free speech on the platform and allow more people to participate in the public conversation. In recent weeks, he allowed some banned users to return to the platform, including former President Donald J. Trump, who was barred from his account after the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill.
- Mr. Musk said in October that he would form a council to advise him on policy matters before making changes to the company's content moderation policies. The council has not materialized. This week, Mr. Musk disbanded a trust and safety advisory group that had guided Twitter on thorny issues like harassment and child exploitation.
- ''I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,'' Mr. Musk tweeted in April, shortly after announcing his intent to buy the company.
- ALL VIDEOS
- VIDEO - (12) Netflix on Twitter: "David Letterman recently traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine to interview President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a just-released episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. As a siren blares, interrupting the conversation, Zelenskyy
- Netflix : David Letterman recently traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine to interview President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a just-released e'... https://t.co/amFiiafjDl
- Thu Dec 15 16:53:20 +0000 2022
- VIDEO - (180) Japan unveils biggest military build-up since World War II | DW News - YouTube
- VIDEO - (180) Beijing funeral homes overwhelmed by surge in COVID deaths | DW News - YouTube
- VIDEO - Doctor warns 'tridemic' could get worse if masks mandated again | Fox Business
- A New York City doctor is warning that bringing back mask mandates '-- especially for kids '-- could make the "tridemic" worse.
- "These kids were raised in a bubble. They have no immunity to any common cold. They are getting so sick and they are getting sick back to back to back," Dr. Dyan Hes of Gramercy Pediatrics said to FOX Business' Madison Alworth. "So what's going to happen when you remask them? They'll go back in their bubble."
- Her comments come as health officials in some states call to mask up indoors as the number of "tridemic" flu, RSV and COVID cases ramp up.
- PFIZER'S NEW TRIAL VACCINE FOR RSV IS OVER 85% EFFECTIVE IN OLDER ADULTS
- "The holiday season is about togetherness and there is a way to gather safely '-- even as respiratory viruses in our city are unusually high," said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan in a recent press release. "It starts with protecting yourself. Vaccination and boosters are critical, but so are common sense precautions like masking when indoors or among crowds and staying home if you don't feel well."
- New York City shoppers wear masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Noam Galai/Getty Images / Getty Images)
- Across the nation, the County of Los Angeles declared, "Now is the time to mask!"
- "L.A. County is experiencing high rates of COVID-19, flu and RSV. These three respiratory illnesses can all cause severe illness. We ask that everyone ages 2 and older wear a mask in indoor public spaces. This includes transit, retail, event venues, school, and worksites when around others," the county's health department wrote on its website.
- However, for some, masking is not a recommendation. The Philadelphia Public School System is mandating masks for two weeks following winter break. The New York college SUNY Purchase is doing the same.
- Businesses are also weighing in. In response to a potential mask mandate, the manager of one iconic New York City bakery who struggled through the pandemic said they "would not follow."
- "Doing business in New York City is difficult in itself '-- adding another layer to us and adding another layer to the customer is at this point very ridiculous," Pasticceria Rocco manager Mary Josephine Generoso said.
- PFIZER DEVELOPS RSV VACCINE FOR INFANTS GIVEN DURING PREGNANCY
- Alworth reported that doctors are particularly concerned with mask mandates for small children because it inhibits their ability to properly develop social cognition skills. Some doctors also argue that masks interfere with kids' ability to read lips, read facial expressions and socially interact with their peers.
- Dr. Marc Siegel, during an appearance on FOX Business' "Varney & Co.," said the government should not be forcing mandates on anyone '-- particularly young children.
- "People are fatigued. They're not going to wear them. And the more they're scolded or talked down to or criticized, the less they're going to do them," he said. "Don't force them on young children, don't interfere with learning and socialization."
- GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
- VIDEO - (180) Trump Launches NFT Collection: "Trump Digital Trading Cards" - YouTube
- VIDEO - Stop the Vaccine Roll-Out - With Andrew Bridgen MP
- December 17, 2022 J.A. Franklin, T.J. Pelham, Daniel French
- MP Andrew Bridgen called a debate in the House of Commons this week, stating that he believes that the Covid vaccines are causing significant damage to many people who are taking them. In his view, the risks of damage from the vaccine outweigh significantly any good they might be doing. In this special interview, The Rev'd Dr Jamie Franklin speaks with Andrew about what brought him to this viewpoint, the salient points of his argument and the evidence in its favour, the lack of interest from the corporate media, and the ethics of vaccinating children including babies as young as six-months old (which has now been approved by the UK's MHRA). This and many more important points are covered in this important conversation concerning the health and wellbeing of millions of people.If you enjoy the show, please don't forget to review, subscribe, share and support if you possibly can. For all your merchandise needs please go to https://www.irreverendpod.com and click on 'merch'.
- To support the show please see: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/irreverend and https://www.patreon.com/irreverend.Notices:Find links to our episodes, social media accounts and ways to support us at https://www.irreverendpod.com!
- Thursday Circles: http://thursdaycircle.comJamie's Good Things Substack: https://jamiefranklin.substack.comIrreverend Sermon Audio: https://irreverendsermonaudio.buzzsprout.com
- VIDEO - (180) Kevin O'Leary on why he invested in FTX and his recent conversation with Sam Bankman-Fried - YouTube
- VIDEO - (180) The Snyderverse is gone, more Disney shenanigans feat. Kamran Pasha | MEitM #340 - YouTube
- VIDEO - (180) Africa Matters: Nigeria redesigns currency to tackle crime - YouTube
- VIDEO - (180) What can China do to slow its post-lockdown COVID surge? | DW News - YouTube
- VIDEO - American Released in Russia-Ukraine Exchange | NTD
- By NTD Newsroom December 15, 2022 NTD Evening News A U.S. citizen has been released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, where the war is not likely to wind down before year's end, White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby said.
- Policies and Regulations Top News December 17
- PreviousNextMost Viewed Stories
- FBI: Minnesota Man Was Making Arsenal of Weapons Against Police |
- US Monitoring New COVID-19 Variants From China |
- Japan Unveils Biggest Military Build-Up Since World War II |
- Medieval Ship Found in Norway's Biggest Lake |
- LIVE 6:30 PM ET: Turning Point USA 2022 Annual Festival''Day 1 |
- German, Asian EV Makers Flock to Hungary |
- Roku Apple TV Amazon Fire TV Sony Smart TV
- VIDEO - (179) QAnon believer who chased Officer Goodman sentenced to 5 years in prison - YouTube
- VIDEO - The Snyderverse is gone, more Disney shenanigans feat. Kamran Pasha | MEitM #340 - YouTube
- VIDEO - (179) Donald Trump's Pathetic, Embarrassing Announcement & Santa's Lap or Booster Shot? - YouTube
- VIDEO - (179) Crackdown to protect the personal data of renters in NSW | 7NEWS - YouTube
- VIDEO - (179) People fall ill after eating spinach sold at Costco | 7NEWS - YouTube
- VIDEO - (18) Dane on Twitter: "$350 billion so Africa can participate in the digital economy. https://t.co/sB3NbiL6wq" / Twitter
- Dane : $350 billion so Africa can participate in the digital economy. https://t.co/sB3NbiL6wq
- Fri Dec 16 19:22:03 +0000 2022
- VIDEO - (179) Shipments STOPPED - US Implements HUGE Railway EMBARGO - Producers WORRIED | Patrick Humphrey - YouTube
- VIDEO - Biden claims his uncle Frank won Purple Heart but story doesn't add up
- President Biden claimed Friday that his uncle Frank Biden won the Purple Heart for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II '-- but there's no evidence of the award and key details of the story are chronologically impossible.
- The 80-year-old commander-in-chief has a habit of sharing false or embellished personal anecdotes to build a connection with his audiences and told his latest apparent tall tale during largely unscripted remarks to veterans in Delaware.
- ''My dad, when I got elected vice president [in 2008], he said, 'Joey, Uncle Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge.' He was not feeling very well now '-- not because of the Battle of the Bulge, but he said, 'and he won the Purple Heart and he never received it. He never got it. Do you think you could help him get it? We will surprise him,''' the president recalled.
- ''So I got him the Purple Heart. He had won it in the Battle of the Bulge. And I remember he came over the house and I came out and [my father] said, 'Present it to him, okay?' We had the family there,'' Biden went on.
- President Biden said Friday that his uncle Frank Biden won the Purple Heart. AFP via Getty Images''I said, 'Uncle Frank, you've won this and I wanted to '--' and he said, 'I don't want the damn thing.' No, I'm serious, he said, 'I don't want it.' I said, 'What's the matter, Uncle Frank? You earned it.' He said, 'Yeah, but the others died. The others died. I lived. I don't want it.'''
- Biden told the story apparently to make a point about the humility of veterans, but the known facts indicate it's not true.
- Biden's father, Joseph R. Biden Sr., died in September 2002 '-- more than six years before his son was elected vice president. Frank Biden, Joe Sr.'s brother, died in 1999.
- Biden spoke extemporaneously during his Friday remarks in Delaware. AFP via Getty ImagesThe White House did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment. The Defense Department referred questions to the Army '-- the military branch in which Frank Biden served '-- but the Army did not immediately respond.
- Frank Biden's tombstone does not identify him as a Purple Heart honoree, nor does his obituary. A partial registry of known Purple Heart recipients also doesn't note anyone by that name receiving the award, though that database is not comprehensive.
- The Post's librarians could not locate prior references to Frank Biden receiving the Purple Heart, which recognizes wounded and killed soldiers, in the Nexis archive and the Factba.se repository of Joe Biden's public statements also doesn't contain prior references.
- Frank Biden died in 1999, making President Biden's story factually impossible. NCA U.S. Department of VeteransThe tale involving Biden's uncle is similar to another emotionally impactful but false story told by then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2019 '-- this one involving a Navy captain supposedly refusing to accept a Silver Star for his heroism in Afghanistan. A Washington Post fact check from the time said Biden ''jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion, and regret that never happened.''
- Biden made other dubious remarks Friday, including telling veterans that ''twice as president'' he had been ''in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq and those areas'' '-- despite never visiting Afghanistan and Iraq as president and getting no closer than the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, almost 300 miles from the Iraqi border.
- Biden is the oldest-ever US president and his mental acuity frequently is a matter of public debate '-- particularly after he asked ''Where's Jackie?'' as he searched for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) in September, despite publicly mourning her death and even calling her family to offer his condolences in August. Multiple times this year, Biden has incorrectly said that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq.
- There's no record of Frank Biden receiving the Purple Heart. NCA U.S. Department of VeteransBut Biden also has a decades-long habit of stretching the truth and ended his first presidential campaign in 1987 due to a scandal involving plagiarism of speeches and a law school paper.
- Then-Senator Biden infamously borrowed British politician Neil Kinnock's family history '-- with Biden changing geographic details to falsely claim in speeches that ''my ancestors '... worked in the coal mines of Northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours.'' Unlike Kinnock, who had used the line to describe his own family in Wales, Biden's ancestors did not mine coal.
- Biden also falsely claimed in 1987 that he ''graduated with three degrees from college,'' was named ''the outstanding student in the political science department,'' ''went to law school on a full academic scholarship '-- the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship'' and ''ended up in the top half'' of his class. None of those claims were true.
- Frank Biden's obituary did not identify him as a Purple Heart recipient. NCA U.S. Department of Veterans After serving in the Army during WWII, Frank Biden worked as as car salesman in Wilmington, Delaware. NCA U.S. Department of Veterans Advertisement
- Since becoming president, Biden has shared a number of false or embellished stories in an apparent attempt to connect with his audiences.
- In October, Biden dubiously claimed that ''I was sort of raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, politically'' while visiting the US territory, despite the fact that there was only an extremely small Puerto Rican community in Delaware when he launched his career.
- At a fire-safety event the same month, Biden said firefighters nearly died extinguishing a blaze in his kitchen in 2004, prompting the local fire department to describe the fire as relatively ''insignificant'' for trained professionals.
- Biden admitted in September to visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that ''I wasn't arrested'' trying to visit Nelson Mandela during the Apartheid era, despite saying so at least three times in 2020. But Biden proceeded to say that ''I got stopped, prevented from moving'' during a congressional trip to the small country Lesotho near South Africa '-- despite a fellow traveler, former Rep. Don Bonker (D-Wash.), telling the Washington Post in 2020 that he had ''no recollection at all'' of that version of the story either.
- Since becoming president, Biden has shared a number of embellished stories in an attempt to connect with his audiences. AFP via Getty ImagesIn May, Biden said at the Naval Academy's graduation ceremony that he was appointed to the military school in 1965 by the late Sen. J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del.). A search of Boggs' archives failed to turn up evidence of the appointment. The date also doesn't match up with Biden's college years and Biden's request for Vietnam War draft deferrals cast further doubt on the account.
- In January, Biden told students at historically black colleges in Atlanta that he was arrested during civil rights protests '-- for which there is no evidence.
- Biden in September 2021 told Jewish leaders that he remembered ''spending time at'' and ''going to'' the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the 2018 mass murder of 11 people in the worst anti-Jewish attack in US history. The synagogue said he never visited and the White House later said he was thinking about a 2019 phone call to the synagogue's rabbi.
- Also last September, Biden told an Idaho audience that his ''first job offer'' came from local lumber and wood products business Boise Cascade. The company said it was news to them and Biden had not previously described an interest in moving to the state.
- VIDEO - (179) A shift in the US perspective on Africa | DW News - YouTube
- VIDEO - (178) Are EU member states ready to act in unity? | DW News - YouTube
- VIDEO - (178) Reports: Eva Kaili's partner confesses role in European Parliament corruption case| Francesco Giorgi - YouTube
