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Western states reach “historic“ deal to help save Colorado River

2023-05-22T23:26:32Z

Colorado River water runs through Central Arizona Project canals in Pinal County, Arizona, U.S., April 9, 2023. REUTERS/Rebecca Noble/File Photo

Seven U.S. states that depend on the overused Colorado River on Monday reached agreement to cut consumption and help save a river that provides drinking water for 40 million people and irrigation for some of the country’s most bountiful farmland.

Arizona, California and Nevada will reduce intake by 3 million acre-feet (3.7 billion cubic meters) through the end of 2026, an amount equal to 13% of their river allotment, under a deal brokered and announced by the Biden administration.

Those three make up the Lower Basin states of the century-old Colorado River Compact, which assigns water rights to them plus the four Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

While the Upper Basin states draw their water directly from the river and its tributaries, the Lower Basin states depend on Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the Hoover Dam and whose spigot is controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The river’s long-term health is critical for the entire region, particularly for the economies of major cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix, and the agricultural industry.

Monday’s agreement clears a major hurdle for reaching a three-year plan for distributing water rights starting in 2024. Without a deal, the federal government might have been forced to impose cuts, likely provoking a flurry of lawsuits.

The agreement, billed by the states as a “historic success,” followed a year of arduous negotiations that featured two blown deadlines.

It was facilitated by an extraordinary deluge this year that filled reservoirs and packed the mountains with snow.

Moreover, the Biden administration made it rain with $1.2 billion in grants under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 that will compensate local water districts, cities and Native American tribes for cutting back.

“This year’s hydrology was really important, and not only the rains in California,” said Estevan Lopez, New Mexico’s signatory to the deal as the state’s commissioner to the river compact. “That made this possible, along with the funding from the IRA.”

Now the seven states must go back to work on longer-term deal starting in 2027, most likely for 20 years, that must be reached without being able to count on rainy years or a flood of federal dollars, and with effects of climate change looming.

“There are significantly more difficult things in the future that are going to have to be agreed to,” said John Entsminger, Nevada’s representative.

The Colorado River Compact has long been problematic as it was agreed following an usually wet period, misleading signatories into believing more water was available to them.

The river has been further strained by rapid population growth and, in this century, a historic drought that – until this year’s rains – threatened to drain reservoir levels below the intake valves that deliver water downstream and cut off hydroelectric production.

Entsminger said officials now acknowledge there will be less Colorado River water available in the 21st century than there was in the 20th.

But he cited Las Vegas, which has seen its population increase by 800,000 people since 2002 while cutting Colorado River consumption by 31%, as an example of how to grow amid scarcity.

While significant, the deal leaves out two major river users: Mexico and Native American tribes.

Lopez said Mexico, which receives 1.5 million acre-feet per year under a 1944 treaty with the United States, has signaled a willingness to cooperate, and the tribes, which have an estimated one-fourth to one-third of the water rights, have been kept informed of the talks.

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Moscow says G7 nuclear rhetoric intended to pressure Russia, China

2023-05-22T23:33:14Z

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attends the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland March 2, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Group of Seven nuclear “rhetoric” has the sole aim of exerting psychological, military and political pressure on Moscow and Beijing.

In the first ever communiqué on nuclear disarmament issued at the G7 summit last week, the group called on Russia and China to show greater transparency about their nuclear arsenals, akin to steps taken by the United States, Britain and France.

In comments on the document, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov – the ministry’s point man for arms control – said the statement reflects the group’s anti-Russian and anti-Chinese tone.

“One gets the impression that Western rhetoric on the topic of the size of their nuclear arsenals has a single goal – to exert psychological and military-political pressure on Russia and China,” Ryabkov said in comments published on the ministry’s website.

“Behind it is clearly a pathological desire to denigrate our countries.”

The comments follow both China and Russia’s furious response to the G7 summit and declarations that singled out both countries on range of issues. Moscow called the summit an “incubator” for anti-Russian and anti-Chinese hysteria.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his “dear friend” President Vladimir Putin committed to a “no limits” partnership just before Russia’s invasion on Ukraine in 2022, and have since further strengthened economic, political and military ties.

In a continued flurry of bilateral visits, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in China late on Monday for talks with Chinese officials and businesses, adding to the West’s unease over the two countries’ relations.

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Italy’s Juventus docked 10 points for transfer deals reut.rs/3MmEzX8

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Facebook owner Meta Platforms was hit with a record $1.3 billion fine by the EU’s lead privacy regulator for privacy violations and given the company five months to stop transferring users’ data to the US reut.rs/3IsMocQ $META

Facebook owner Meta Platforms was hit with a record $1.3 billion fine by the EU’s lead privacy regulator for privacy violations and given the company five months to stop transferring users’ data to the US reut.rs/3IsMocQ $META

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📺 From @Breakingviews: The G7 pledge to tighten the screw on Moscow relies on a good cost-benefit analysis, argues @pierrebri reut.rs/3Ox9pPC

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US Supreme Court backs three men in Cuomo-era New York corruption cases reut.rs/434gYl9

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JPMorgan Chase’s net interest income will rise $3 billion as it brings in more in interest payments from its purchase of failed First Republic Bank this year reut.rs/3onGB1k

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With all the politics and maneuvering, how is life in Florida changing for its residents?

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on Considered View A Changing Florida
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Australian Indigenous TV host quits program over racist backlash

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Prominent Indigenous journalist Stan Grant announced that, after Monday, he will step away from television hosting duties after viewers responded with racist abuse to his comments during King Charles III’s coronation about historic Aboriginal dispossession.

Grant, a member of the Wiradjuri tribe of Indigenous Australians and former international correspondent for U.S.-based CNN, has been under fire since taking part in a panel discussion on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ahead of the May 6 coronation ceremony in London. Topics included a push to have a president replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state and Indigenous suffering from colonization.

Critics complained that the ABC had soured the celebratory mood of the coronation.

After more than 30 years of news experience in Australian television, Grant wrote Friday in his regular ABC online column that Monday would be the last time in the foreseeable future that he would host his weekly national panel discussion program “Q+A,” because of the news media and social media abuse.

“I take time out because we have shown again that our history — our hard truth — is too big, too fragile, too precious for the media. The media sees only battle lines, not bridges. It sees only politics,” Grant wrote. “The media has turned public discussion into an amusement park. Social media, at its worst, is a sordid spectacle. A grotesque burlesque. Lives are reduced to mockery and ridicule.”

“I want no part of it. I want to find a place of grace far from the stench of the media,” Grant said.

Grant was asked to participate on the panel “as a Wiradjuri man to discuss his own family’s experience and the role of the monarchy in Australia in the context of Indigenous history,” Justin Stevens, ABC news director, said in a statement.

“The responsibility for the coverage lies with ABC news management, not with Stan Grant,” Steven said.

Indigenous Australians account for 3.2% of the national population and are Australia’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.

A political divide emerged over the center-left Labor Party government’s plan to hold a referendum this year that would create an Indigenous representative body that would be known as a Voice to Parliament and would advise lawmakers on issues that effect Indigenous lives.

The main conservative parties oppose such a change to the constitution and argue it would divide the nation along racial lines.

An increasingly visible neo-Nazi movement has prompted several Australian states to outlaw swastikas, and football competitions have introduced sanctions to try and stamp out racial abuse from spectators directed at Indigenous players.

The Australian Monarchist League lodged a freedom of information request with the ABC about the planning of the broadcast to determine “how this pitiful turn of evets was allowed to eventuate,” said Eric Abetz, the league’s chair and a former senator.

“The commandeering of the broadcast into a monologue of everything that might be wrong with our great country and then depositing it all at the feet of our constitutional monarchy was both blatantly absurd and an abuse of the occasion,” Abetz said in a statement. “This freedom of information request will expose the twisted thinking and those responsible for this unprecedented and unprincipled takeover of what should have been a factual commentary on an exceptionally historic occasion.”

Grant said that since the coronation, he had seen “people in the media lie and distort my words.” He said he and his family were “regularly racially mocked or abused,” and no one in the ABC had publicly supported him since the coronation.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson apologized to Grant on Sunday in an email to staff, saying Grant’s experiences since the coronation have been “distressing and confronting” for the corporation.

“Stan Grant has stated that he has not felt publicly supported. For this, I apologize to Stan,” Anderson wrote. “The ABC endeavors to support its staff in the unfortunate moments when there is external abuse directed at them.”

Stevens said the corporation had complained to Twitter this year about racist abuse of Grant published on the social media platform. Any threats against Grant would be referred to police, Stevens said.

Media reporting of Grant’s contribution to the panel discussion had been “unfair, inaccurate and irresponsible,” Stevens said. “It has contributed to fueling horrendous personal and racial abuse,” he said.

The ABC Ombudsman was investigating public complaints about the broadcast. The ABC did not comment on News Corp reports that there had been more than 1,000 complaints about the coronation broadcast.

News Corp reported that the ABC broadcast had largely focused on issues relating to the republic movement, and widespread harm perpetrated against Indigenous Australians by the monarchy and its colonial enterprise.

Anderson said “anti-ABC reporting” by some commercial media outlets had been “sustained and vitriolic,” and announced a review of how the ABC responds to racism affecting staff.

“Racism must never be tolerated and I am dismayed that Stan has been exposed to such sickening behavior,” Anderson said. “This has real-world consequences for ABC presenters and journalists who are personally attacked and vilified.”


Page 2

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Prominent Indigenous journalist Stan Grant announced that, after Monday, he will step away from television hosting duties after viewers responded with racist abuse to his comments during King Charles III’s coronation about historic Aboriginal dispossession.

Grant, a member of the Wiradjuri tribe of Indigenous Australians and former international correspondent for U.S.-based CNN, has been under fire since taking part in a panel discussion on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ahead of the May 6 coronation ceremony in London. Topics included a push to have a president replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state and Indigenous suffering from colonization.

Critics complained that the ABC had soured the celebratory mood of the coronation.

After more than 30 years of news experience in Australian television, Grant wrote Friday in his regular ABC online column that Monday would be the last time in the foreseeable future that he would host his weekly national panel discussion program “Q+A,” because of the news media and social media abuse.

“I take time out because we have shown again that our history — our hard truth — is too big, too fragile, too precious for the media. The media sees only battle lines, not bridges. It sees only politics,” Grant wrote. “The media has turned public discussion into an amusement park. Social media, at its worst, is a sordid spectacle. A grotesque burlesque. Lives are reduced to mockery and ridicule.”

“I want no part of it. I want to find a place of grace far from the stench of the media,” Grant said.

Grant was asked to participate on the panel “as a Wiradjuri man to discuss his own family’s experience and the role of the monarchy in Australia in the context of Indigenous history,” Justin Stevens, ABC news director, said in a statement.

“The responsibility for the coverage lies with ABC news management, not with Stan Grant,” Steven said.

Indigenous Australians account for 3.2% of the national population and are Australia’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.

A political divide emerged over the center-left Labor Party government’s plan to hold a referendum this year that would create an Indigenous representative body that would be known as a Voice to Parliament and would advise lawmakers on issues that effect Indigenous lives.

The main conservative parties oppose such a change to the constitution and argue it would divide the nation along racial lines.

An increasingly visible neo-Nazi movement has prompted several Australian states to outlaw swastikas, and football competitions have introduced sanctions to try and stamp out racial abuse from spectators directed at Indigenous players.

The Australian Monarchist League lodged a freedom of information request with the ABC about the planning of the broadcast to determine “how this pitiful turn of evets was allowed to eventuate,” said Eric Abetz, the league’s chair and a former senator.

“The commandeering of the broadcast into a monologue of everything that might be wrong with our great country and then depositing it all at the feet of our constitutional monarchy was both blatantly absurd and an abuse of the occasion,” Abetz said in a statement. “This freedom of information request will expose the twisted thinking and those responsible for this unprecedented and unprincipled takeover of what should have been a factual commentary on an exceptionally historic occasion.”

Grant said that since the coronation, he had seen “people in the media lie and distort my words.” He said he and his family were “regularly racially mocked or abused,” and no one in the ABC had publicly supported him since the coronation.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson apologized to Grant on Sunday in an email to staff, saying Grant’s experiences since the coronation have been “distressing and confronting” for the corporation.

“Stan Grant has stated that he has not felt publicly supported. For this, I apologize to Stan,” Anderson wrote. “The ABC endeavors to support its staff in the unfortunate moments when there is external abuse directed at them.”

Stevens said the corporation had complained to Twitter this year about racist abuse of Grant published on the social media platform. Any threats against Grant would be referred to police, Stevens said.

Media reporting of Grant’s contribution to the panel discussion had been “unfair, inaccurate and irresponsible,” Stevens said. “It has contributed to fueling horrendous personal and racial abuse,” he said.

The ABC Ombudsman was investigating public complaints about the broadcast. The ABC did not comment on News Corp reports that there had been more than 1,000 complaints about the coronation broadcast.

News Corp reported that the ABC broadcast had largely focused on issues relating to the republic movement, and widespread harm perpetrated against Indigenous Australians by the monarchy and its colonial enterprise.

Anderson said “anti-ABC reporting” by some commercial media outlets had been “sustained and vitriolic,” and announced a review of how the ABC responds to racism affecting staff.

“Racism must never be tolerated and I am dismayed that Stan has been exposed to such sickening behavior,” Anderson said. “This has real-world consequences for ABC presenters and journalists who are personally attacked and vilified.”

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AP and Reuters

Vinícius Júnior gains more support as Spanish soccer again embroiled in racism

MADRID (AP) — Spanish soccer is again embroiled in racism, with the support for Vinícius Júnior growing rapidly after yet another case of abuse against the Brazil forward this weekend.

Officials, players and former players showed solidarity with Vinícius, who on Sunday considered leaving the field after being insulted by fans during Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss at Valencia in the Spanish league.

Vinícius said after the match the Spanish league “now belongs to racists” and that Spain “is seen as a racist country.”

“Full solidarity to Vinicius,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said. “There is no place for racism in football or in society and FIFA stands by all players who have found themselves in such a situation. Events during the match between Valencia and Real Madrid show that this needs to be the case.”

The support for Vinícius, who is Black and as been subjected to racist abuse since he arrived to play in Spain five years ago, came from former players and current stars.

“You’re not alone,” France forward Kylian Mbappé said on Instagram. “We are with you and we support you.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and several of his cabinet ministers also backed Vinicius and were critical of Spanish soccer.

“It is not fair that a poor boy who is winning in his life, becoming one of the best in the world, certainly the best at Real Madrid, is insulted in every stadium he goes to,” Lula said.

Many were calling for solutions after the repeated racist attacks against Vinícius.

“Another case of racism against Vinícius in the Spanish league,” said former Brazil striker Ronaldo, who spent five seasons playing for Real Madrid in the 2000s. “Until when? As long as there is impunity, there will be racism.”

Real Madrid said it “strongly” condemned the abuse against Vinícius and said it formally denounced the case to Spanish prosecutors.

“These events represent a direct attack on the social and democratic model of coexistence of our State based on the rule of law,” the club said.

The Spanish league has made nine similar formal complaints for racist abuse against Vinícius over the last two seasons, but most of the cases have been shelved by prosecutors. Another complaint was expected to be made after an investigation into what happened in Valencia was completed.

Fans have been fined and banned from stadiums for their abuse, but so far only a Mallorca fan may end up going on trial for allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game.

“It wasn’t the first time, or the second or the third. Racism is normal in LaLiga. The competition thinks it’s normal, as does the federation, and the opponents encourage it,” Vinícius said on Instagram and Twitter on Sunday. “The league that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano (Ronaldo) and (Lionel) Messi now belongs to racists … But I’m strong and I will fight until the end against the racists. Even if far from here.”

Spanish league president Javier Tebas criticized Vinícius for attacking the league, saying the player didn’t show up for talks on the subject of racism that he had requested himself.

The league claims it only has authority to denounce cases, and that it’s up to local authorities to take action against the perpetrators and the soccer federation to punish clubs and referees. But the Spanish league does have control over the sporting sanctions in its own competitions. FIFA, the sport’s governing body, updated its own disciplinary code in 2013 — with options for point deductions and mandatory relegation for teams in the most serious cases — and asked competition organizers worldwide to follow.

Vinícius wasn’t happy with Tebas’ stance.

“Instead of criticizing racists, the league president shows up on social media to attack me,” Vinícius said. “Although you may say otherwise or pretend not to notice, the image of your championship is shaken. Omitting yourself only makes you equal to the racists. I’m not your friend to talk about racism with you. I want actions and punishment.”

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said he was “curious to see what happens” now, but didn’t expect much.

“Nothing will happen, because this has already taken place several times in other stadiums and nothing has been done. Nothing,” Ancelotti said. “We have to evaluate this situation, because it is very serious.”

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AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

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Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports