Contaminated waste shipments from Ohio derailment to resume

 Shipment of contaminated waste from the site of a fiery train derailment earlier this month in eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line will resume Monday to two approved sites in Ohio, according to federal environmental authorities.

The announcement came a day after the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk Southern to “pause” shipments from the site of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine to allow additional oversight measures about where waste was shipped. Some liquid and solid waste had already been taken to sites in Michigan and Texas.

EPA-certified facilities able to accept some of the waste had been identified, which meant shipments could restart Monday, Region 5 administrator Debra Shore, of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Sunday.

Some of the liquid waste will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, for disposal in an underground injection well, Shore said. Norfolk Southern will also begin shipping solid waste to an incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, and additional solid waste disposal locations were being sought, she said.

“All of this is great news for the people of East Palestine and the surrounding community, because it means cleanup can continue at a rapid pace,” she said.

The Ohio governor's office said Saturday night that five of the 20 truckloads (approximately 280 tons) of hazardous solid waste had been returned to East Palestine after 15 truckloads were disposed of at a Michigan hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility. Shore said material shipped out to sites in other states, but later returned to East Palestine, would now be shipped to the two Ohio sites.

All of the rail cars except for the 11 cars held by the National Transportation Safety Board have been removed from the site, which will allow excavation of additional contaminated soil and installation of monitoring wells to check for groundwater contamination, said Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

No one was injured when 38 Norfolk Southern cars derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on the outskirts of town, but as fears grew about a potential explosion due to hazardous chemicals in five of the rail cars, officials evacuated the area. They later opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from the tanker cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky again.

Federal and state officials have repeatedly said it’s safe for evacuated residents to return to the area and that air testing in the town and inside hundreds of homes hasn’t detected any concerning levels of contaminants. The state says the local municipal drinking water system is safe, and bottled water is available for those with private wells. Despite those assurances, many residents have expressed a sense of mistrust or have lingering questions about what they have been exposed to and how it will impact the future of their families and communities.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/NORFOLK-SOUTHERN-CORPORAT-13802/news/Contaminated-waste-shipments-from-Ohio-derailment-to-resume-43093812/

Global Crypto Rules to Be Based on Coming FSB and IMF Synthesis Paper, India Says After G20 Meetings

 The basis of coming global crypto rules will be formed on a new synthesis paper, jointly produced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), announced India as the holder of the Group of 20 (G20) Presidency in Bangalore on Saturday.

The announcement came after three days of meetings in India among the 20 largest economies of the world, collectively known as the G20, in which creating a global regulatory framework for crypto was a priority.

The discussions held between the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors were expected to chart the way forward for globally coordinated crypto rules.

The synthesis paper will be submitted during India's G20 Presidency which culminates in September when India hosts G20 leaders from around the world, said Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a press conference.

Asked whether consensus around global crypto regulation that India had prioritised for its G20 presidency will arrive during India's term, Sitharaman said "first of all we are going through the study process so that their can be informed discussions."

"Something should develop," Sitharaman added while referring to FSB's expected paper in July that will lead to the synthesis paper by September.

Sitharaman also said that Canada's central bank governor cautioned other members that crypto assets should not be given "regulatory seal of approval" without a well-thought-out approach and a framework for implementation.

"The World Bank stated that views of all developing countries should also be included in any (crypto) policy framework," Sitharaman added.

India's Central Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said that there was a marked shift in perception around crypto assets by G20 nations in the past year which saw the collapse of several major crypto companies, including FTX, and a global contagion. There is a wide acceptance about risks involved in crypto assets now, Das said.

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/02/25/global-crypto-rules-to-be-based-on-coming-fsb-imf-synthesis-paper-india-announces-after-g20-meetings/

Former Treasury Sec Doubts Soft Economic Landing - Looks To Global Institutions For Solutions

 Former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, joins Bloomberg to answer questions on persistent inflation indicators despite Federal Reserve tightening measures and rising interest rates.  Summers, with some carefully chosen words, essentially admits what alternative economists have been warning about all along - That short term positive indicators are misleading and that longer term indicators show impending recession and a sharp decline in the US. 

After $8 trillion+ in fiat helicopter money pumped into the economy during the pandemic lockdowns, an impressive spike in retail and service sector activity was the result, spurring a hiring blitz in mostly low wage jobs.  The lockdowns led to over 25 million job losses and the covid stimulus bought 12 million jobs back.  This heightened activity, however, has been fleeting.  Equally impressive has been the aggressive spike in stagflation.  High prices continue to hang on and the Fed has little choice but to roll forward on increased interest rates. 

The central bank has expressed steady hawkish sentiments in the past few weeks, which have run contrary to media and political claims of easing inflation and an inevitable "soft landing." 

In a somewhat similar dynamic to the early-1980s under former Fed chairman Paul Volcker (inflation stats today are calculated far differently from the 80s in an attempt to hide true inflation), the mainstream economic media is starting to realize that interest rates will have to go much higher than they expected and a hard landing is an inevitable outcome. 

Summers then hints at what he thinks the solution will be, which of course involves global policy makers and global banking institutions like World Bank.  If we were to run Summer's comments through a truth translator, here is what we would likely hear:

"A soft economic landing is not going to happen and the negative data is becoming too obvious to deny.  Inflation signals are not relenting and the Fed will continue hiking rates.  This will lead to a recessionary crash, so we're going to admit to the issue now in order to avoid looking like complete fools later.  In the meantime, we're going to use the ongoing crisis to promote more globalism, which was our intention all along."

A message to Larry - You can't hit the brakes on the car when you've already driven off a cliff. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/former-treasury-secretary-admits-doubts-soft-economic-landing-looks-global-institutions

Viruses in Cambodian bird flu cases identified as endemic clade

 The viruses that infected two people in Cambodia with H5N1 avian influenza have been identified as an endemic clade of bird flu circulating in the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The cases reported last week had raised concerns they were caused by a new strain of H5N1, clade 2.3.4.4b, which emerged in 2020 and has caused record numbers of deaths among wild birds and domestic poultry in recent months.

But work so far suggests this is not the case.

Preliminary genetic sequencing carried out in Cambodia led its health ministry to identify the viruses as H5 clade 2.3.2.1c, which has circulated in Cambodia among birds and poultry for many years and has sporadically caused infections in people, the CDC said in a statement on Saturday.

"Yes, this is an older clade of avian influenza that had been circulating around the region for a number of years and while it has caused human infections in the past, it has not been seen to cause human-to-human transmission. However, that doesn't mean that the threat is any less," said Erik Karlsson, director of the National Influenza Center of Cambodia and acting head of virology at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, which sequenced the virus.

He added that the response needed to be coordinated and swift to prevent any further spread and to limit exposure to any common source.

An investigation into the source and to detect any additional cases is ongoing, the CDC said, adding that so far there had been no indication of person-to-person spread.

Cambodia tested at least 12 people for the H5N1 strain last week, after an 11-year-old girl died from the virus in the first known transmission to humans in the country in nearly a decade.

The victim's father, who was part of a group the girl had been in contact with in a province east of the capital Phnom Penh, tested positive for the virus but did not exhibit any symptoms, Cambodia's Health Minister Mam Bunheng had said in a statement on Friday.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/viruses-cambodian-bird-flu-cases-155252388.html

Musk accuses media of racism after newspapers drop 'Dilbert' cartoon

  Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday accused the media of being racist against whites and Asians after U.S. newspapers dropped a white comic strip author who made derogatory comments about Black Americans.

The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and USA Today were among newspapers that canceled the cartoon "Dilbert" after its creator Scott Adams said Black Americans were a hate group and posted racist comments on his YouTube channel on Wednesday.

In replies to tweets about the controversy, the Tesla and Twitter chief executive said the media had long been racist against non-white people but are now "racist against whites & Asians."

"Maybe they can try not being racist," Musk tweeted.

In response to an account that said white victims of police violence get a fraction of media coverage compared to Black victims, Musk said the coverage is "Very disproportionate to promote a false narrative."

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk's views on social issues have been increasingly under the microscope since he took over Twitter in October.

He has sparred with civil rights groups over Twitter's level of protection against hateful content and the reinstatement of some accounts that previously had been suspended. Some advertisers have left the platform over concerns about brand safety, and Twitter has rolled out some new controls for ad placement.

Musk's latest tweets come after the Dilbert creator suggested white Americans "get the hell away from Black people". Adams, the cartoonist, was responding to a poll by the conservative Rasmussen Reports that said 26% of Black respondents said they disagreed with the statement "It's OK to be white."

The move to drop the cartoon was "not a difficult decision", the Plain Dealer newspaper in Ohio told its readers on Friday.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/elon-musk-accuses-media-racism-205502454.html

Billionaire Ackman donates $3.25 million for ambulances in Ukraine

 Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has pledged $3.25 million to help buy more than a dozen ambulances for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia's invasion, according to a fellow investor who cited a conversation with him.

Ackman's donation will cover the purchase of 15 specially equipped Toyota 4x4 Land Cruiser ambulances and the costs of operating them on the front lines, investor Whitney Tilson, who is on the advisory board of Ackman's charity, Pershing Square Foundation, wrote in an email to his friends and professional contacts. The email was reviewed by Reuters.

"I had breakfast with my college buddy Bill Ackman this morning, walked him through the attached slide deck I put together about my ambulances-for-Ukraine mission, and on the spot he agreed to donate $3.25 million," Tilson wrote in the email, dated Feb. 25.

Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management oversees roughly $16 billion in assets.

A spokesperson for Ackman could not be reached for comment. Tilson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tilson has been leading an effort to buy ambulances for Ukraine that will be operated by humanitarian aid group MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station), which is based in Malta.

The Land Cruisers cost roughly $116,000 each and come with an extended roof that let medical personnel stand up as they treat patients.

Ackman, whose great-grandfather emigrated to the United States from Ukraine, has an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, according to Forbes. Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, have pledged to give away the majority of their fortune and have supported causes ranging from medical research to relief to earthquake-stricken Haiti to Harvard University's crew team.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/billionaire-ackman-donates-3-25-212701469.html

Mexicans turn out in droves to protest electoral overhaul, see democracy at risk

 

Huge crowds gathered in Mexico on Sunday to condemn government moves to shrink the electoral authority as a threat to democracy, in what appeared to be the largest protest so far against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration.

Organizers said over 500,000 people turned out in Mexico City, with video footage on social media showing the central Zocalo square filled with protesters, who also spilled out into adjoining streets. One police officer nearby said he had heard the half a million figure, while others gave lower estimates.

Mexico's Congress on Wednesday approved a major overhaul of the National Electoral Institute (INE), an independent body which Lopez Obrador has attacked as corrupt and inefficient.

The 69-year-old president denies his changes will weaken Mexican democracy. Critics have vowed to take the legislation, which slashes the INE's budget and staff as well as paring back its responsibilities, to the Supreme Court.

Veronica Echevarria, a 58-year-old psychologist from Mexico City at the protest, said she feared Lopez Obrador's INE shake-up was a bid by the president to stay in power. He denies this.

"We're fighting to defend our democracy," Echevarria said, wearing a cap emblazoned with the words "Hands off the INE."

She and thousands of others converged on the Zocalo on Sunday morning, many of them holding Mexican flags and dressed in pink, the INE's color. Shouts of "Viva Mexico!" and "Lopez out!" rang out periodically as the mass of people advanced.

The Zocalo has over the years hosted many rallies fronted by Lopez Obrador, both as president and during his long career as an opposition scourge of the Mexican establishment.

The INE and its predecessor played a key role in creating a pluralistic democracy that in 2000 ended decades of one party rule, according to many political analysts.

Fernando Belaunzaran, an opposition politician who helped to organize the protests, argued the INE changes weakened the electoral system and increased the risk of disputes clouding the 2024 elections when Lopez Obrador's successor will be chosen.

"Normally presidents try to have governability and stability for their succession, but the president is creating uncertainty," said Belaunzaran. "He's playing with fire."

Mexican presidents may only serve a single six-year term.

Belaunzaran said on Twitter over 500,000 people had gathered in the capital on Sunday to oppose the INE overhaul. He said demonstrations were taking place in more than 100 cities.

Protests were held in states including Jalisco, Yucatan, Nuevo Leon, Queretaro, Guanajuato and Veracruz, according to news reports and footage broadcast on social media.

At least 22,000 people gathered in Nuevo Leon's capital Monterrey, newspaper Excelsior said, citing local authorities. Another 20,000 took to the streets in the heart of the Jalisco capital, Guadalajara, news network Milenio reported.

Angel Garcia, a 50-year-old Mexico City protestor, said the demonstrations were also an appeal to the Supreme Court to rule the INE overhaul violated the constitution.

If Mexico did not protect the INE, its democracy would be sent "back to the past," argued Garcia, a lawyer.

"It's now or never," he said.

Lopez Obrador, a leftist who contends he was robbed of the presidency twice before he finally romped to a crushing victory in the 2018 election, argues the INE is too expensive and biased in favor of his opponents. The institute denies this.

The president has cast Sunday's protests as a partisan attempt by the opposition to discredit his government.

According to the INE, the president's overhaul violates the constitution, curbs its independence and eliminates thousands of jobs dedicated to safeguarding the electoral process, making it harder to hold free and fair elections.

Lopez Obrador, whose approval ratings still run at 60% or higher in opinion polls, has also weakened other autonomous bodies that check his power on the grounds they are a drain on the public purse and hostile to his political project.

He says his INE shake-up will save $150 million a year.

Polls show the president's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), which in just a few years has become the dominant force in Mexico, is a strong favorite to win the 2024 election.

Antonio Mondragon, a retired dentist at the Mexico City protest who voted for Lopez Obrador in 2018, said people were fed up with the president behaving like a "dictator."

"We need to get back to being a democracy," said the 83-year-old Mondragon, "because the man is going mad."

https://www.yahoo.com/now/playing-fire-mass-protest-planned-100317863.html