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Overnight News Digest: Musk appointed himself CEO of Twitter and controversy follows [1]
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Date: 2022-10-31
x Hasn't Musk and his advisors been saying all week that no policies have changed as of now?
https://t.co/Nvx6QOg8gw — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 1, 2022
NPR
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The European Union's competition czar has a message for Twitter's new boss Elon Musk: We are watching you. Since the Tesla CEO took ownership of the social network last week promising, among other changes, to loosen up rules around what people can post to Twitter, authorities in Europe have been standing by for any signs that Twitter may run afoul of European speech laws. "There is a European rulebook, and you should live by it," said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice president who oversees digital policy for the 27-nation bloc, in her first interview since Musk took over Twitter. "Otherwise, we have the penalties. We have the fines. We have all the assessments and all the decisions that will come to haunt you."
Al Jazeera
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has said that there were no ships involved in a UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal transiting a maritime humanitarian corridor on the night of Oct. 29, when Russia says its vessels in the Bay of Sevastopol in Crimea were attacked. Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsular with 16 drones in the early hours of Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” had helped coordinate the “terrorist” attack. Russia said it had repelled the attack, with just minor damage to a minesweeper, but that the ships targeted were involved in ensuring the grain corridor. Russia accordingly suspended its participation in a landmark agreement that allowed vital grain exports from Ukraine.
Al Jazeera
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s presidential election victory in Brazil has spurred renewed hope for the future of the world’s largest rainforest as the left-wing leader pledged to combat climate change and reverse some of his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro’s policies. “Brazil is ready to resume its leading role in the fight against the climate crisis,” especially by protecting the Amazon, Lula said shortly after being declared the winner on Sunday evening. “In our government, we were able to reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 80 percent. Now, let’s fight for zero deforestation,” Lula, who previously served as presidentfrom 2003 to 2010, wrote on Twitter.
Deutsche Welle
Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Monday that his country's military would be put on a raised level of alert as part of increased security measures in response to the war in Ukraine. "This is the most severe security situation in several decades," Stoere told a press conference "There are no indications that Russia is expanding its warfare to other countries, but the increased tensions make us more exposed to threats, intelligence operations and influence campaigns." The increased alert level would be valid from Tuesday. Defense Minister Bjoern Arild Gram said this decision means that the military will spend less time training and more time on active duty. Norway's Home Guard, a rapid mobilization force, will also have a stronger presence. General Eirik Kristoffersen, the head of the armed forces, said that Norway had dropped out of planned drills in the United States with its F-35 aircraft, preferring to keep the planes closer to home for the time being.
Deutsche Welle
A UN-backed Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic on Monday convicted and sentenced three militiamen for their role in a 2019 massacre in country's north. The three members of the armed group known as 3R, which stands for Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation, were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for attacks which claimed the lives of 46 villagers in May 2019. After its first-ever trial, SCC handed down guilty verdicts along with one sentence of life imprisonment and two twenty-year sentences. Prosecutors had been seeking life terms for all three of the accused.
BBC
It's 157 years since the US constitution banned chattel slavery - in which one person is the legal property of another - but left in place an exemption for convicted prisoners. Throughout most of the US, slavery or involuntary servitude are still legal as punishment for a crime. But on 8 November, voters in five states - Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont - will decide whether to remove these exemptions from their state constitutions and ban slavery entirely. The outcome could enable prisoners to challenge forced labour. Some 800,000 currently work for pennies, or for nothing at all. Seven states do not pay prison workers any wage for most job assignments. Supporters of change say it's an exploitative loophole that must be closed. But critics argue that the move is unaffordable and could lead to unintended consequences in the criminal justice system.
BBC
Shanghai Disney has become the latest high-profile venue to shut its gates thanks to China's strict zero-Covid policy, trapping visitors inside. People have been told they will not be allowed out of the theme park until they can show a negative test. It comes after Shanghai reported 10 locally transmitted cases on Saturday. China's controversial zero-Covid policy has already seen millions of people repeatedly locked down, sometimes in unusual locations. The sudden nature lockdowns have seen people fleeing shops - including a Shanghai branch of Swedish furniture giant Ikea - and workplaces as they try to avoid being trapped inside. However, those awaiting their freedom at Shanghai Disney can console themselves with one positive: rides are continuing to operate for those trapped inside The Happiest Place on Earth.
The Guardian
Iran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he was shocked by the number of innocent protesters who were being illegally and violently arrested. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has already announced that she is to ask the European Union to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. Canada meanwhile announced a fourth round of sanctions against senior Iranian officials and its law enforcement agents, which Canada accuses of participating in the suppression and arrest of unarmed protesters.
The Guardian
The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told police he wanted to hold the congresswoman hostage and “break her kneecaps”, authorities in California said on Monday afternoon. David DePape, 42, confronted a sleeping Paul Pelosi in the couple’s San Francisco townhouse bedroom shortly before 2.30am last Friday morning, according to a federal affidavit filed in court on Monday. Federal prosecutors have filed two charges against DePape, days after police say he broke into the Pelosis’ home and struck the Democratic House of Representatives leader’s 82-year-old husband in the head with a hammer.
The Guardian
The billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he has previously criticised. “I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing innocent people daily,” Tinkov said. “I hope more prominent Russian businessmen will follow me, so it weakens Putin’s regime and his economy, and put him eventually to defeat,” he wrote on Instagram.
The Guardin
Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic US withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals have told the Associated Press. They said the Russians want to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of steady, $1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families so they can avoid deportation home to what many assume would be death at the hands of the Taliban. “They don’t want to go fight – but they have no choice,” said one of the generals, Abdul Raof Arghandiwal, adding that the dozen or so commandos in Iran with whom he has texted fear deportation most. “They ask me, ‘Give me a solution? What should we do? If we go back to Afghanistan , the Taliban will kill us.’”
Reuters
WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday called on oil and gas companies to use their record profits to lower costs for Americans and increase production, or pay a higher tax rate, as he battles high pump prices with elections coming in a week. In remarks at the White House, Biden criticized major oil companies who are bringing in big profits while Americans, weary of inflation, pay a tidy sum to fill up their cars. The oil industry “has not met its commitment to invest in America and support the American people,” he said. They’re not just making a “fair return” he said, they’re making “profits so high it is hard to believe,” Biden said.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy said on Monday he wants a U.S. national security review of a Saudi Arabian conglomerate's stake in Twitter Inc after Elon Musk's takeover of the social media company. Murphy said he was asking the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers — "to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Twitter." Most foreigners seeking to take even noncontrolling stakes in U.S. companies must seek approval from CFIUS, a powerful Treasury-led committee that reviews transactions for national security concerns and has the power to block them.
NPR
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