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The first rule of Dunning Kruger Club

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As a sly social media wit puts it, the first rule of Dunning Kruger Club is, you don’t know you’re a member of Dunning Kruger Club. The Dunning-Kruger effect, as you will recall, is a documented cognitive bias where some people with low ability, low expertise, or little experience regarding a certain type of task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate that ability or knowledge. Smug (and tragically wrong) assertions about Covid-19 are common examples of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Loathsome anti-vaxxer and even more loathsome Proud Boy Aaron Laigaie, who declared “covid is over,” who also said Covid is “a problem for the elderly” and that he didn’t need the vaccine because he previously had Covid-19 and “it sucked for 2 days and it was over,” has — you guessed it — died from Covid-19. He died last Friday.

Laigaie famously refused to get a Covid-19 shot asserting, in a Dunning-Kruger-ly sort of way, that his immune system was strong enough all by itself. He was one of the original members of the so-called “MT Baker Proud Boys.”

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The Proud Boys, as most of you know, are an all-male, neo-fascist, far-right organisation with its headquarters in the US. They are notorious for their participation in political violence and for their infamous participation in the January 6 insurrection. The governments of Canada and New Zealand have classified the Proud Boys as a terrorist organisation.


So once again, Covid doesn’t care who you are, who you think your god is or what political party you belong to. All it knows is every time it sees an unvaccinated idiot — it’s dinner time. This should serve as a reminder for everyone else out there with any common sense that Covid is alive and well and still deadly. So if you haven’t done so yet, get vaccinated. And don’t forget to wear a mask in crowded public places, practise social distancing and wash your hands. Your life just might depend on it.

There are eight million stories in the naked city of human stupidity. This has been one of them. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

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Analysis: Tesla uses its profits as a weapon in an EV price war

2023-01-20T01:52:31Z

Model Y cars are pictured during the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) earns more money for every vehicle it sells than any of its global rivals. Now, Chief Executive Elon Musk is using that superior profitability as a weapon in the EV price war he started.

Tesla, once one of the auto industry’s biggest money losers, has over the past year built a commanding lead over most major rivals in profit per vehicle, a Reuters analysis of industry data shows.

Tesla earned $15,653 in gross profit per vehicle in the third quarter of 2022 – more than twice as much as Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), four times the comparable figure at Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and five times more than Ford Motor Co (F.N), according to a Reuters analysis.

For most of this year, Tesla joined rivals in aggressively raising prices on its most popular vehicles, such as the Model Y SUV. Shortages of semiconductors and other materials kept auto industry production down, allowing companies across the industry to focus on higher-margin models and book strong profits, even as sales volumes fell.

Tesla’s decision to reverse course and spend its production-cost advantage on price cuts now challenges the profit-over-volume strategies established automakers such as GM have pursued since the 2008 financial crisis, and doubled down on during the pandemic.

To control production costs, Tesla has invested heavily in new manufacturing technology – such as the use of large castings to replace small metal parts. Tesla brought battery manufacturing and other parts of its supply chain in-house, and standardized vehicle designs to improve economies of scale.

Using production-cost advantages to fund price cuts has a long history in the auto industry.

Henry Ford slashed prices on his Model T in the early 20th Century as his innovative mass-production system revved up. During the 1980s and 1990s, Toyota used the cost lead provided by its lean production system to offer features at prices Detroit automakers struggled to match. Now, Toyota is rebooting its strategy under pressure from Tesla.

Growth in electric vehicle demand outpaced the overall market in the United States and globally during 2022. That emboldened automakers to push EV prices higher. Ford hiked prices for its electric F-150 pickup by 40% during 2022.

But analysts are warning the global EV market could soon have more production capacity than demand.

By 2026, North American EV demand will hit a level of about 2.8 million vehicles a year, said industry forecaster Warren Browne. But North American EV factories will be capable of assembling more than 4.5 million vehicles, putting overall capacity utilization at just under 60%, he said.

In China, the end of central government subsidies is accelerating a market share war among rivals in the world’s largest EV market.

“Tesla has taken the nuclear option to bully the weaker, thin margin players off the table” in China, said Bill Russo of Automobility, an industry consultancy in Shanghai. “Big pie, fewer slices, more to eat for those that remain.”

Startups such as China’s Xpeng Inc (9868.HK) had benefited from Tesla’s price hikes. Now, Xpeng is cutting prices in China – but with less financial leeway than Tesla. Xpeng reported gross profit of $4,565 in the third quarter, and a net loss of $11,735 a vehicle, according to company data analyzed by Reuters.

“We hope more people can access smart vehicles after we make our cars increasingly affordable,” Xpeng said in a statement.

Vietnamese EV startup Vinfast said Thursday it will use price promotions to fight back against Tesla.

Chinese EV market leader BYD Co Ltd(002594.SZ) announced price increases effective Jan. 1 after Beijing phased out EV subsidies. So far, BYD has not responded to Tesla’s latest price cuts in China. However, BYD’s gross margins of $5,456 per vehicle give it more headroom in a price war than VW, Toyota or GM.

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Some 500 people are evacuated from fire in South Korea shanty town

2023-01-20T01:49:17Z

About 500 people were evacuated on Friday after fire broke out in a shanty town in the South Korean capital, Seoul, fire authorities said.

The fire erupted at 6:27 a.m. (0927 GMT) in Guryong Village in southern Seoul, which is home to more than 660 households.

About 40 homes in the 1,700-square-meter (18,000-square-foot) area have been destroyed, fire officials said, with about 290 firefighters, 10 helicopters and police officers dispatched to contain the blaze. No casualties were reported.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, called for all-out efforts to minimise the damage and mobilise all available firefighters and equipment, his spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min also instructed officials to prevent secondary damage and protect residents in nearby areas, the ministry said.

One of the last remaining slums, the village is a symbol of inequality in Asia’s fourth-largest economy just next to the flashy, affluent district of Gangnam.

The area has also been prone to fires, floods and other disasters, with many homes built using cardboard and wood, and residents exposed to safety and health issues.

Plans for redevelopment and relocation have made little progress amid a decades-long tug of war between land owners, residents and authorities.

Seoul said Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the village and asked officials to draw up measures to relocate families affected by the fire.

Related Galleries:

Smoke rises from a fire at Guryong village, the last slum in the glitzy Gangnam district, in Seoul, South Korea, January 20, 2023. Yonhap via REUTERS

Residents receive help near the site of a fire at Guryong village, the last slum in the glitzy Gangnam district, in Seoul, South Korea, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Firefighters walk on the roof of a shed at the site of a fire at Guryong village, the last slum in the glitzy Gangnam district, in Seoul, South Korea, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

A helicopter arrives to splash water at the site of a fire at Guryong village, the last slum in the glitzy Gangnam district, in Seoul, South Korea, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
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David Crosby, rock legend and master of harmony, dead at age 81

2023-01-20T01:40:08Z

David Crosby, one of the most influential rock musicians of the 1960s and ’70s and who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with two different groups, has died at the age of 81.

Crosby was a founding member of two revered rock bands: the country and folk-influenced Byrds, for whom he cowrote the hit “Eight Miles High,” and Crosby, Stills & Nash, later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who defined the smooth side of the Woodstock generation’s music.

“It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed,” Graham Nash, his longtime collaborator and sometime sparring partner, said in a statement.

“I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together … and the deep friendship we shared,” Nash said.

Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, announced the death in a statement published by Variety. It did not specify when he died, nor the cause. Crosby’s British-based representatives could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

Musically, Crosby stood out for his intricate vocal harmonies, unorthodox open tunings on guitar and incisive songwriting. His work with both the Byrds and CSN/CSNY blended rock and folk in new ways, and their music became a part of the soundtrack for the hippie era.

“I don’t know what to say other than I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby. David was an unbelievable talent – such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person,” Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson said on Twitter.

Personally, Crosby was the embodiment of the credo “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” and a 2014 Rolling Stone magazine article tagged him “rock’s unlikeliest survivor.”

In addition to drug addictions that ultimately led to a transplant to replace a liver worn out by decades of excess, his tumultuous life included a serious motorcycle accident, the death of a girlfriend, and battles against hepatitis C and diabetes.

“I’m concerned that the time I’ve got here is so short, and I’m pissed at myself, deeply, for the 10 years – at least – of time that I wasted just getting smashed,” Crosby told the Los Angeles Times in July 2019. “I’m ashamed of that.”

He fell “as low as a human being can go,” Crosby told the Times.

He also managed to alienate many of his famous former bandmates, for which he often expressed remorse in recent years.

His drug habits and often abrasive personality contributed to the demise of CSNY and the members eventually quit speaking to each other. In the 2019 documentary “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” he made clear he hoped they could work together again, but conceded the others “really dislike me, strongly.”

Crosby fathered six children – two as a sperm donor to rocker Melissa Etheridge’s partner and another who was placed for adoption at birth and did not meet Crosby until he was in his 30s. That son, James Raymond, would eventually become his musical collaborator.

“Thank you @thedavidcrosby I will miss you my friend,” Etheridge said on Twitter alongside a photo of the two of them.

Looking back at the turbulent 1960s and his life, Crosby told Time magazine in 2006: “We were right about civil rights; we were right about human rights; we were right about peace being better than war … But I think we didn’t know our butt from a hole in the ground about drugs and that bit us pretty hard.”

Crosby was born on Aug. 14, 1941, in Los Angeles. His father was a cinematographer who won a Golden Globe for “High Noon” in 1952 and his mother exposed him to the folk group the Weavers and to classical music.

As a teenager, Crosby found that one of his passions aided him in the pursuit of another. “It (playing music) was absolutely joyous to me,” he wrote. “I always loved it. I always will love it. And I did get laid.”

After a stay in New York’s Greenwich Village music scene, Crosby was back in California in 1963 and helped Roger McGuinn start the Byrds, whose first hit, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” came in 1965, followed by “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds because the band did not want to play his songs, with the flashpoint being “Triad,” about a menage a trois, and disputes over on-stage political rants.

Crosby and Stephen Stills, whose band with Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, had fallen apart, then began playing together. Graham Nash of the Hollies, who met Crosby in 1966 and went on to become his closest collaborator and a closer friend, joined them. Their first album, “Crosby, Stills and Nash,” was a big seller in 1969.

Guitarist and singer/songwriter Young fell in with them that year and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young came to be considered one of the greatest amalgams of talent in rock history.

Their second performance together was the landmark Woodstock music festival in 1969, and their 1970 album, “Deja Vu” contained hits “Teach Your Children,” “Woodstock,” and one of Crosby’s signature songs, “Almost Cut My Hair.”

As CSNY was taking off, Crosby was in a drug-fueled downward spiral caused by the 1969 death of girlfriend Christine Hinton in a car accident.

“Nothing in my life had prepared me for that,” wrote Crosby, who had added cocaine and heroin to his drug repertoire.

The next decade was a blur of drug arrests, album releases and women. “I was not into being monogamous – I made that plain to everybody concerned. I was a complete and utter pleasure-seeking sybarite,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Crosby had a daughter with a girlfriend but soon left her for Jan Dance, who moved in with him in 1978. That relationship lasted and they had a son, Django, in 1995.

Crosby introduced Dance to heroin and the free-basing method of smoking cocaine. “We went down the tubes together but we did it with our hearts intertwined,” he wrote.

There were several failed attempts at rehab and Crosby developed a reputation as a bloated, hapless addict. In 1985, Nash told Rolling Stone: “I’ve tried everything – extreme anger, extreme compassion. I’ve gotten 20 of his best friends in the same room with him. I’ve tried hanging out with him. I’ve tried not hanging out with him.”

Crosby beat a series of drug charges but lost in Texas after being arrested with a drug pipe and gun at a club in Dallas and went to prison in 1985. The prison system required him to shave his trademark bushy mustache, but he found solace in playing in the prison band during his year of incarceration.

After his release, Crosby told People magazine he had beaten his addictions.

He was also arrested on gun and marijuana charges in New York in 2004.

In 2014 he released “Croz,” his first solo album since 1993, but his tour to promote the record was interrupted in February by heart surgery.

He continued recording and was an active presence on Twitter, in addition to writing an advice column for Rolling Stone.

In March 2021, the Guardian reported that Crosby sold the recorded music and publishing rights to his entire music catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for an undisclosed sum.

Related Galleries:

62nd Grammy Awards – Arrivals – Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 26, 2020 – David Crosby. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Musician David Crosby performs during a benefit concert to help defeat Proposition 32 on the State of California?s November election ballot at Nokia theatre in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 3, 2012. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Musician David Crosby poses for a portrait before an interview regarding his new autobiography, in New York, U.S. November 28, 2006. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Neil Young, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills of the band Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young pose at a press conference in New York, U.S. October 12, 1999. REUTERS/Peter Morgan

Singer David Crosby (L) and wife Jan Dance pose at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Carole King in Los Angeles, U.S. January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Singer David Crosby performs at the “September 11th Children’s Benefit Concert” sponsored by U.S. Congressman Marty Meehan’s (D-Ma) “Meehan Educational Foundation,” at the Paul Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S. December 5, 2001. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/
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Netflix co-founder Hastings steps down as CEO as company adds subscribers

2023-01-20T01:50:50Z

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings said on Thursday he will step down as chief executive, handing the reins of the streaming service to longtime partner and co-CEO Ted Sarandos and the company’s chief operating officer, Greg Peters. This report produced by Freddie Joyner.

Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) co-founder Reed Hastings stepped down as chief executive of the company that upended Hollywood by delivering movies and TV shows online, handing the reins to longtime partner and co-CEO Ted Sarandos and chief operating officer Greg Peters.

Shares of Netflix rose 6.1% to $335.05 in after-hours trading as the streaming video pioneer also said it had picked up more subscribers than expected at the end of last year.

The company has been under pressure after losing customers in the first half of 2022. Its stock, a one-time Wall Street darling, had fallen nearly 38% in the past year.

Sarandos and Peters will share the title of chief executives, with Hastings serving as executive chairman. The change is effective immediately, representing the culmination of a decade of succession planning by the board. Both Peters and Sarandos were promoted in July 2020 amid a challenging time for the company.

“It was a baptism by fire, given Covid and recent challenges within our business,” Hastings said in a statement. “But they’ve both managed incredibly well … so the board and I believe it’s the right time to compete my succession.”

Hastings made his exit as Netflix said it added 7.66 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts of 4.57 million with help from “Harry & Meghan” and “Wednesday” in the battle to attract streaming television viewers.

Earnings per share, however, came in at 12 cents, below the 45 cents expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Netflix projected “modest” gains in subscribers through March. It forecast 4% year-over-year growth in revenue during the period with the help of new revenue streams.

The company is facing restrained consumer spending and competition from Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and others spending billions of dollars to make TV shows and movies for online audiences.

Netflix lost customers in the first half of 2022. It returned to growth in the second half, but new customer additions remain below the pace of recent years.

To kick-start growth, Netflix introduced a cheaper, ad-supported option in November in 12 countries. It also has announced plans to crack down on password sharing.

“2022 was a tough year, with a bumpy start but a brighter finish. We believe we have a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue growth,” Netflix said in its quarterly letter to shareholders.

Netflix will start rolling out features this quarter to try and convert more password sharers to paying subscribers, Peters said. He acknowledged it will not be a “universally popular move,” comparing it to a price increase that will increase cancellations for a time but pay off with added revenue.

The company’s global subscriber base hit 231 million at the end of December.

Audiences flocked to Addams family tale “Wednesday,” the third-most watched show in Netflix history, the company said. Murder mystery “Glass Onion” and the British royals documentary “Harry & Meghan” also were hits during the quarter.

Net income fell to $55 million or 12 cents per share, from $607 million or $1.33 per share a year earlier. Revenue rose 1.9% to $7.85 billion, in line with expectations.

Hastings, 62, co-founded Netflix as a DVD-by-mail business in 1997, saying the idea came from his frustration at having returned a rental of “Apollo 13” to the local Blockbuster video store and getting socked with a $40 late fee.

“It feels like yesterday we were at our IPO. We were covered in red envelopes,” Hastings said on Thursday in a post-earnings video interview.

The business evolved in 2007 to a video streaming service that shook up Hollywood, prodding Netflix’s media rivals to invest billions in their own services.

Some of Hastings’ challenges were self-inflicted, such as his plan to spin off the company’s DVD business into a new company called Qwikster. That 2011 initiative cost the company 800,000 subscribers and sent the stock plunging.

The executive navigated another precipitous stock drop in April 2022, when Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in more than a decade. This forced Hastings to reconsider previously verboten ideas to spur growth, including an ad-supported version of the service.

Related Galleries:

Reed Hastings, Co-CEO, Netflix speaks at the 2021 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. October 18, 2021. REUTERS/David Swanson

The Netflix logo is seen on a TV remote controller, in this illustration taken January 20, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Reed Hastings, founder and Co-C.E.O. of Netflix, arrives at the DealBook Summit in New York City, U.S., November 30, 2022. REUTERS/David ‘Dee’ Delgado
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Saved Web Pages – Daily Report at 9 p.m. [Inoreader digest]

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Saved Web Pages – Daily Report at 9 p.m.

created by Michael Novakhov  •  Jan 19 2023

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‘Potentially, this is extremely dangerous,’ Kremlin foreign minister says
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The new Omicron subvariant, XBB 1.5, is dominating Connecticut’s COVID-19 case burden. According to the…
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Florida schools will not offer AP African American Studies course

2023-01-20T01:03:06Z

Florida will not allow high school students to take a new Advanced Placement (AP) class in African American Studies, saying in a letter to College Board, the nonprofit that develops the courses, that the pilot version “lacks educational value.”

The letter to the educational nonprofit – which runs the Advanced Placement Program – was the latest move by the conservative administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to criticize and even outlaw some educational efforts about racism and slavery.

The College Board administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Advanced Placement tests that help students gain college credit while in high school. It is developing its first African American Studies course through a pilot program at 60 high schools.

“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” reads the Jan. 12 letter by Florida’s Office of Articulation and posted on Twitter by an ABC News journalist.

Florida is one of several states that have banned public schools from teaching “Critical Race Theory,” an academic framework that teaches “racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities,” according to the NAACP. Some conservatives view teaching this as inaccurate and harmful.

In its letter, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) did not indicate how the interdisciplinary course, which draws on literature, the arts, political science and other disciplines, broke state law or lacked educational value.

However, the letter went on to say that the state might reconsider its stance should the content of the course change.

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter said.

The move sparked swift backlash among some civil rights activists and Democratic lawmakers who said it was discriminatory.

“Ron DeSantis wants to pretend that Black history isn’t American history. Leaders like him are the reason why Florida has seen a huge surge in hate crimes and acts of racism over the last two years,” said newly elected Florida congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost.

“The State of Florida will allow AP European and American studies — but AP African-American studies is ‘contrary to Florida law’?” posted Martin Luther King Jr. III on Twitter. “Please explain how this isn’t blatantly racist. Floridians deserve a clear answer.”

The College Board said in a statement to Reuters that the course aims to “explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans.” It is a humanities course and as such does not teach theory, the statement said.

The Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Thursday, or confirm that it had sent the letter rejecting the course.

The College Board did not directly address Florida’s letter. But the nonprofit said in a separate statement to Reuters that the course was still under development.

In a separate move this week, the presidents of Florida’s state college system said they would not provide funding for course or activities that “compel” a belief in Critical Race Theory, without pointing to any specific programs that did.

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Texas regulator proposes power market overhaul after 2021 freeze

2023-01-20T01:07:31Z

Power lines are seen after winter weather caused electricity blackouts in Houston, Texas, U.S. February 17, 2021. REUTERS/Go Nakamura

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) on Thursday adopted a new market design for the state’s electric grid that will see power plants getting paid to be on standby, aimed at securing new generation capacity and increasing grid reliability.

The market redesign is the latest of several efforts by Texas regulators to ensure reliability of electricity supply after a February 2021 deep freeze that killed more than 200 people and left around 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses without power and heat.

The unanimous vote by the five-member commission proposed requiring electricity retailers to pay power plants to be ready to come online during grid emergencies, encouraging the construction of new generation resources.

The commission also directed the grid operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), to “develop bridging options to retain existing power plants and build new generation resources until the PCM can be fully implemented.”

The reform, called the Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM), fulfils the requirements of a 2021 grid weatherization law for on-demand generation to be available during periods of high demand, but it will not be implemented before a review by the state legislature, the commission said.

However, one of the sponsors of that law, Senator Charles Schwertner, in a statement called the PCM “an unnecessarily complex, capacity-style design that puts the competitive market at risk without guaranteeing the delivery of new dispatchable generation.”

“Concerns remain regarding shifting risk away from generators and toward consumers,” said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, calling for generators to be “paid for real time performance.”

Earlier this week, the Dallas Federal Reserve said that the Texas electrical grid, which avoided rolling blackouts during severe cold weather last month, is still vulnerable to severe weather despite safeguards following the February 2021 freeze.

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Exclusive: Brazil launches first anti-deforestation raids under Lula bid to protect Amazon

2023-01-20T00:56:58Z

Brazilian environmental agents cut through the rainforest with machetes on Thursday in search of criminals in the first anti-deforestation raids under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has pledged to end surging destruction inherited from his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Reuters exclusively accompanied raids led by environmental agency Ibama in the rainforest state of Para to stop loggers and ranchers illegally clearing the forest.

The agency also launched raids this week in the states of Roraima and Acre, Ibama environmental enforcement coordinator Tatiane Leite said.

About 10 Ibama agents set out in pickup trucks on Thursday from their base in the municipality of Uruara, Pará, along with a dozen federal police, heading toward a cluster of points where satellite images showed loggers and ranchers recently at work clearing the forest illegally.

In 12 hours driving on dirt roads illegally crisscrossing an indigenous reserve, the convoy reached five areas that were deforested and burned around the time of last October’s election that pitted Lula against Bolsonaro.

The areas all lay within the Cachoeira Seca indigenous reserve, where deforestation is strictly prohibited.

Four of the tracts appeared to be subsequently abandoned, with no signs people were living nearby or in the process of turning them into ranches. Agents said it could be a sign that illegal ranchers gave up on investing time and money in turning illegal land into productive pasture, knowing that Lula campaigned on a pledge to crack down on deforestation.

“People know that in this government enforcement will tighten and won’t let them use an area they deforested illegally,” said Givanildo dos Santos Lima, the agent leading Ibama’s Uruara mission.

“If the other government had won, you would have found people here, well-maintained pastures and cattle.”

The government under Bolsonaro had gutted staff and funding for environmental enforcement by Ibama in his four years in office, while the former president criticized Ibama for issuing fines to farmers and miners.

Bolsonaro gave the military and later the Justice Ministry authority over operations to fight deforestation, sidelining Ibama despite the agency’s extensive experience and success in fighting the destruction of the Amazon.

An area larger than Denmark was deforested under Bolsonaro, a 60% increase from the prior four years.

In another area of the reserve, agents found a newly built house with several chainsaws and stocked with weeks of food, indicating the occupants had likely fled just before Ibama’s arrival.

Flanked by police with semiautomatic weapons, Ibama agents hacked a path through the adjacent jungle to reach an area the size of 57 football fields strewn with downed trees and charged trunks.

Some messily planted corn sprouted up to knee-level in what appeared to be an attempt to lay claim to the area to eventually turn it into cattle pasture, the agents said.

“We’ll come back with a helicopter and catch them by surprise,” Lima said.

He was optimistic that Ibama would be able to conduct more raids under Lula, aimed at fining deforesters and spooking criminals from attempting to clear more areas.

Lula on the campaign trail last year pledged to put Ibama back in charge of combating deforestation with beefed-up funding and personnel. He took office on Jan. 1, so additional money and staff have yet to reach the front-line enforcers.

Bolsonaro’s government denied several requests by Reuters to accompany Ibama missions during his 2019-2022 administration. His government instituted a gag order forbidding Ibama agents from speaking to the press, which agents say has already been reversed.

Lula took office for the first time in 2003 when Amazon deforestation was near all-time highs, and through strict enforcement of environmental laws reduced it by 72% to a near record low when he left office in 2010.

Related Galleries:

An agent of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) gets ready before going to an operation to combat of deforestation, in Uruara, Para State, Brazil January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

An agent of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) gets ready before going to an operation to combat of deforestation, in Uruara, Para State, Brazil January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

An agent of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) gets ready before going to an operation to combat of deforestation, in Uruara, Para State, Brazil January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

An agent of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) gets ready before going to an operation to combat of deforestation, in Uruara, Para State, Brazil January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
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Donald Trump floats his stupidest trial defense yet

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Do you have any keepsakes? I do. Keepsakes are lovely tokens of remembrance. And what kind of things are the most popular memory keepsakes? I have always been fond of collecting rocks from the beach sands and polishing them. Perhaps you, too, have collected them, or perhaps you collected seashells that could transport you back in an instant to the glimmering sea.

Perhaps for you, it’s picture frames or tickets or some other type of memorabilia. Yes, most of us have some sort of keepsake. But I bet none of us have ever considered classified government document Folders as “keepsakes.”

“Cool keepsake!” This is the message that traitor Donald John Trump put out on Truth Social. As some of us collect trinkets, antiques, and seashells, Trump claims he collects classified document folders — because they’re “cool.” Excuse me for chuckling a bit at this news.

This appears to be the latest defense Trump is trying out. Trump has been searching in vain for a good defense of his classified document scandal. I do not think he’s found it. And yet this is what Trump posted on truth social. He claims he thought the folders would make cool keepsakes, so he “saved hundreds of them.”

Thank you, Donald, for admitting you’re a thief. As for the keepsake defense? That’ll get him nowhere. What it WILL get him is a whole lot of laughter because I think it is his most absurd defense yet.

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Can you picture it? Let me set the stage. A lonely Trump leaving the White House says to himself, “I need some type of keepsake. I know! I’ll take classified documents out of their folders and keep the folders scattered in all sorts of places as reminders of my horrible time in the office.”


Make sense to you? Nah. Me neither. Trump says 48 folders that he stole (Stole is my word — because he did steal them) were empty because he left the documents behind, wanting only the folders to gaze fondly at. And Trump claims that when classified documents were distributed, and it was time to collect them and put them back, nobody bothered to collect the folders.

“Remember,” Trump wrote insanely, “they were just ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them.” It is truly amazing, is it not that we had a President this stupid? So thank you, Donald Trump, for your confession, which I’m sure will be studied at great length by Jack Smith and his fellow prosecutors.

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