Archives for August 2021

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A civilian Pentagon official ordered the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday to conduct a full environmental assessment of a $9.4 billion Formosa Plastics complex planned in Louisiana, drawing praise from environmentalists.

Jaime Pinkham, the Army’s acting assistant secretary for civil works, ordered the review after a virtual meeting with opponents of a Corps wetlands permit that allowed Formosa Plastics Group member FG LA LLC to build 10 chemical plants and four other major facilities on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Critics praised the decision.

“The Army Corps has finally heard our pleas and understands our pain. With God’s help, Formosa Plastics will soon pull out of our community,” said a statement by Sharon Lavigne, who founded the local group Rise St. James to fight the planned complex announced in 2018.

Formosa, based in Taiwan, wants to produce polyethylene, polypropylene, polymer and ethylene glycol on 2,400 acres (970 hectares) in St. James Parish. Dubbed The Sunshine Project because it’s near the Sunshine Bridge, the project is expected to provide 1,200 permanent jobs and up to 8,000 construction jobs, the state has said.

The Corps issued a permit in September 2019 to let FG LA dredge and fill wetlands and create detention ponds in wetlands, according to a lawsuit by opponents. It said the site includes more than 900 acres (364 hectares) of wetlands, of which nearly 62 acres (25 hectares) of wetlands and nearly 50 acres (20 hectares) of other waters would be permanently affected.

It could take years to put together a full environmental impact statement, Lavigne said in an interview.

She said she silently thanked God when Pinkham said he was planning the order.

“I had to touch myself to see if I’m real,” said Lavigne, who earlier this year was awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize honoring grassroots environmental activism.

Within an hour, she said, Pinkham’s memo to the Corps’ commanding general was posted on his office’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Pinkham, who supervises and sets policy for the Corps’ civil works, wrote that he is committed to having the Army “be a leader in the federal government’s efforts to ensure thorough environmental analysis and meaningful community outreach.”

The Corps needs “to thoroughly review areas of concern, particularly those with environmental justice implications,” Pinkham wrote.

Major construction has been on hold since the Corps agreed in November to reconsider its permit for the plants in Welcome, where the Census Bureau estimates that nearly 97% of the 880 residents are Black.

Pinkham’s tweet and letter provide little detail about what procedures the Corps intends to use, said an emailed statement from FG LA. “The company will continue to work with the Corps as we receive more guidance on the additional evaluation and has no further comment at this time,” it said.

The memo does not identify the Corps’ commanding general. He is Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, according to the agency’s website.

One of the people who challenged the permit, Julie Teel Simmonds of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the decision was a step toward greater oversight even if the permit wasn’t scrapped.

“Although it does not revoke the permit, it at least lays out the proper process for an adequate environmental review of the project, which the Corps failed to do before,” Simmonds said in an email.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A Canadian judge reserved her decision Wednesday on whether a senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies should be extradited to the U.S. after a Canadian Justice Department lawyer wrapped up his case by saying there’s enough evidence to show she was dishonest and deserves to stand trial in the U.S.

Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said that on Oct. 21 she will likely announce when she will rule on whether Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer for Huawei’s Technologies and daughter of its founder, will be extradited.

Meng was arrested at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise.

The U.S. wants Meng extradited to face fraud charges, alleging she committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran. It accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Defense lawyers have argued there isn’t enough evidence to justify her extradition.

But in his final submissions, Justice Department lawyer Robert Frater disputed defense claims there is no evidence Meng made any misrepresentations that put the bank at risk of violating sanctions.

“We say there is a strong case here Ms. Meng was dishonest,” Frater said. “We met our burden.”

By not disclosing Huawei’s true relationship with Skycom, Meng put HSBC at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, he said.

“HSBC was deprived of a fair opportunity to take the action it needed to take,” Frater told the judge.

He said Meng was honest in parts of her meeting with an HSBC executive, but she didn’t tell “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

Frater said the defense is trying to “blame the victim” in saying it was the bank’s decision to transfer money from Skycom through the U.S.

China’s government has criticized the arrest as part of U.S. efforts to hamper its technology development. Huawei, a maker of network equipment and smartphones, is China’s first global tech brand and is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and the security of information systems.

Meng, who attended the hearing wearing an electronic monitoring device on her ankle, followed the proceedings through a translator.

Whatever the judge’s decision, it will likely be appealed.

The case has soured relations between Canada and China.

Entrepreneur Michael Spavor and a former Canadian diplomat were detained in what critics labeled “hostage politics” after Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou was arrested Dec. 1, 2018, at the Vancouver airport. They were were arrested in China in apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest.

A Chinese court this month sentenced Spavor to 11 years in prison for spying.

In another case, the Higher People’s Court of Liaoning province in northeast China rejected an appeal by Canadian Robert Schellenberg, whose 15-year prison term on drug smuggling charges was increased to death in January 2019 following Meng’s arrest.

Meng remains free on bail in Vancouver and is living in a mansion.

Beijing denies there is a connection between Meng’s case and the arrests of Spavor and Kovrig, but Chinese officials and state media frequently mention the two men in relation to whether or not Meng is allowed to return to China.

Canada and other countries, including Australia and the Philippines, face trade boycotts and other Chinese pressure in disputes with Beijing over human rights, the coronavirus and control of the South China Sea. The United States has warned American travelers face a “heightened risk of arbitrary detention” in China for reasons other than to enforce laws.

China has tried to pressure Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government by imposing restrictions on imports of canola seed oil and other products from Canada.

Meanwhile, Beijing is blocking imports of Australian wheat, wine and other products after its government called for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.

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OnlyFans, a site where fans pay creators for their photos and videos, is planning to ban “sexually explicit” content.

The ban will start Oct. 1 and is the result of requests from banking partners and companies that handle financial transactions, a spokesperson said.

Still, nudity is OK if it’s “consistent” with the company’s policy. It’s not clear what that policy is, and the company did not reply to questions. OnlyFans will be sharing more information in “coming days.”

OnlyFans has become famous as a space for celebrities to interact with people on a personal level, as well as a place where sex workers can post and get paid in a relatively safe manner.

It’s not available as an app via the Apple and Google stores, which ban pornography. OnlyFans has tried to distance itself from its association with porn, recently announcing an OFTV streaming app, which is available for download from the major tech platforms, and features content around categories like fitness, cooking, comedy and music.

OnlyFans says it has 130 million users and 2 million creators who have collectively earned $5 billion.

Bloomberg was first to report the news.

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As the Taliban negotiates with senior politicians and government leaders following its lighting-fast takeover of Afghanistan, U.S. social media companies are reckoning with how to deal with a violent extremist group that is poised to rule a country of 40 million people.

Should the Taliban be allowed on social platforms if they don’t break any rules, such as a ban on inciting violence, but instead use it to spread a narrative that they’re newly reformed and are handing out soap and medication in the streets? If the Taliban runs Afghanistan, should they also run the country’s official government accounts?

And should tech companies in Silicon Valley decide what is — and isn’t — a legitimate government? They certainly don’t want to. But as the situation unfolds, uncomfortable decisions lie ahead.

DOES THE TALIBAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

The Taliban quickly seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a two-decade war. The insurgents stormed across the country, capturing all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the U.S. and its allies melted away.

The last time the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube did not exist. Neither did MySpace, for that matter. Internet use in the country was virtually nonexistent with just 0.01% of the population online, according to the World Bank.

In recent years, that number has vastly increased. The Taliban have also increased their online presence, producing slick videos and maintaining official social media accounts. Despite bans, they have found ways to evade restrictions on YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. Last year, for instance, they used WhatsApp groups to share pictures of local health officials in white gowns and masks handing out protective masks and bars of soap to locals.

On Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has been posting regular updates to more than 300,000 followers, including international media. Twitter suspended another account, @AfghPresident, which has served as the nation’s de facto official presidential account, pending verification of the account holder’s identity.

“There’s a realization that winning the war is as much a function of a nonmilitary tool like social media as it is about the bullets,” said Sarah Kreps, a law professor at Cornell University who focuses on international politics, technology and national security. “Maybe these groups, even from just an instrumental perspective, have realized that beheading people is not a way to win the hearts and minds of the country.”

WAIT, THE TALIBAN WERE ALLOWED ON TWITTER?

Facebook and YouTube consider the Taliban a terrorist organization and prohibit it from operating accounts. Twitter has not explicitly banned the group, though the company said Tuesday that it will continue to enforce its rules, in particular policies than bar “glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.”

This essentially means that until the accounts violate Twitter’s rules — for instance, by inciting violence — they are allowed to operate.

While the Taliban is not on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on it. Facebook said Tuesday that the group is banned from its platform under its “dangerous organization” policies. which also bars “praise, support and representation” of the group and accounts run on its behalf. The company emphasized in a statement that it has a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts that are native speakers of Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan’s official languages, to help provide local context and to alert the company of emerging issues.

Facebook has a spotty record when it comes to enforcing its rules. Doing so on WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook, could prove more difficult given that the service encrypts messages so that no one but senders and recipients can read them.

Twitter said it is seeing people in Afghanistan using its platform to seek help and that its top priority is “keeping people safe.” Critics immediately questioned why the company continues to ban former President Donald Trump even as it allows Mujahid to post.

“They certainly decided to silence a former U.S. president,” said Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party in Cincinnati, Ohio, who called Twitter’s decision “preposterous.”

Twitter permanently suspended Trump following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, saying his posts glorified and could lead to more violence. The company has long insisted that it suspends accounts based on behavior and whether they violate its rules on the service, and not on offline actions and affiliation.

While he understands that social media companies operate in a global economy, Triantafilou said, “it seems to me that supporting America and our own interest” would make more sense for a U.S. company.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

As the situation unfolds, the major companies are grappling with how to respond. It’s not an entirely unique situation — they have had to deal with groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, for instance, which hold considerable political power but are also violent and have carried out acts of terrorism.

“For the past decade, Hamas has used social media to gain attention, and convey their messages to international audiences in multiple languages,” wrote Devorah Margolin, senior research fellow at the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University, in a July report. For example, she wrote, both the political and military wings of Hamas operated official accounts on Twitter.

Despite attempts to use its English-language account to make its case to the international community, Margolin said the group still used Twitter to call for violence. In 2019, Twitter closed the official accounts, @HamasInfo and @HamasInfoEn, for violating its rules, saying there is “no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups.”

Facebook declined to say specifically if it would hand over Afghanistan’s official government accounts to the Taliban if it is recognized as the country’s government. The company pointed to an earlier statement saying it “does not make decisions about the recognized government in any particular country but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations.”

Twitter declined to answer questions beyond its statement. YouTube, meanwhile, provided a boilerplate statement saying it complies with “all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws” and bans the incitement of violence.

All that effectively leaves the door open for the social platforms to eventually hand over control of the official accounts, assuming the Taliban behave and U.S. sanctions are lifted. “That seems like a reasonable approach, because I think the social media platforms don’t necessarily want to be adjudicating is which groups are legitimate themselves,” said Kreps, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1999 to 2003, partly in Afghanistan.

At the same time, she noted, the companies, especially Facebook, have learned a great deal — and paid a price — for the way the way social media helped incite genocidal behavior in Myanmar. And they’re unlikely to want a repeat of those horrors.

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DENVER (AP) — The FBI said Wednesday its agents are joining a criminal investigation into an alleged security breach of a rural Colorado county’s voting equipment.

The agents are working with Mesa County prosecutors to determine if there was a criminal violation, FBI spokeswoman Courtney Bernal said in a statement.

The federal probe comes after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold alerted federal cyber security officials within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of the suspected May breach.

No elections have occurred since, and the federal officials confirmed the alleged breach posed no significant risks “at this point,” Griswold said earlier this week.

The allegations involve images of election management software used by Mesa County election’s equipment that were obtained by conspiracy theorists.

Griswold’s office said it believes one of the images was taken on May 23 from a secure room where the equipment was stored and accessed by Peters, another county elections worker and a non-employee.

Griswold’s office identified the non-employee but refused to say anything more about who he is or why he was there. The Associated Press isn’t naming him until more information becomes available. He has not been charged with a crime.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters condemned Griswold’s inquiry into the alleged security breach at an event last week in South Dakota hosted by My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, who has become well-known for his unwavering support of former President Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election because of widespread fraud. A range of election officials across the country, including Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that widespread fraud did not occur.

Peters said Griswold’s investigation is an attempt at a takeover of Mesa County’s elections in one of Colorado’s last Republican strongholds. Peters also alleged the investigation is an attempt by Griswold and Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to “control the way you vote,” she told the South Dakota audience.

The dispute is the latest illustration of how the November 2020 election that is a distant memory for many remains front and center for some far-right Trump supporters. A Republican-led audit of Arizona ballots has been going on for months despite any evidence to support the review.

Accelerating the dispute on Wednesday, Griswold’s office blasted the My Pillow chief executive as the “chief misinformation spreader” in a fundraising email and asked Colorado residents to donate to Griswold’s reelection campaign to “take action to show we stand with the truth, not with conspiracy theories created and spread by sore losers.”

The federal inquiry adds yet another layer to the political brawl between Griswold, a Democrat and Peters, a Republican. The feud came to a head last week when Griswold accused Peters of assisting in the security breach by directing staff to turn off video surveillance of its voting equipment before a May 25 software update and allowing a non-employee into the elections office at that time.

Griswold appointed Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to supervise the county’s upcoming elections and a three-person advisory committee to assist Reiner. Griswold also ordered Mesa County to replace its voting equipment due to the posting of the county’s voting equipment passwords on a far-right blog.

Colorado’s voting system has been praised by officials, including former Trump-appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, as one of the nation’s safest.

The state’s election procedures were developed under both Republican and Democrat-appointed secretary of states.

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Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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