Connect with us
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=12]

Business

Elon Musk’s X Set to Reboot in Brazil After Final Fine Payment

Published

3 minute read

News release from Reclaim The Net.

By

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, is now clear to resume its online activities in Brazil with the settlement of one final penalty according to an announcement made last Friday by Brazil’s controversial justice official, Alexandre de Moraes. The supreme justice authority in the country, known as the Federal Supreme Court (STF), had previously sanctioned a nationwide suspension of X in late August, a decree that was sustained by a judicial panel on September 2 following X’s noncompliance with the court’s orders.

The controversy originated in the spring when STF’s Minister de Moraes initiated an investigation into Musk and X after the platform refused to heed its censorship demands.

Musk was bold in his defiance of the court’s requests to shut down selected accounts in Brazil. He proceeded to critique de Moraes publicly, labeling him a “criminal” and advocating for the cessation of US foreign aid to Brazil.

Nonetheless, this incident marks a turning point in the ordeal. Earlier this month, X submitted official documentation to Brazil’s supreme court indicating their compliance with the court’s instructions, a stance diverging from their previous rebellious approach.

However, as reported by Brazil’s G1 Globo, X still holds the responsibility of settling a new fine of 10 million reals (approximately $2 million) to close the chapter on two further days of noncompliance with court orders. Rachel de Oliveira, X’s legal representative in Brazil, is also obligated to settle a 300,000 real penalty.

The situation escalated in mid-August, when Musk opted to shutter X’s Brazilian offices, thereby leaving the company devoid of a mandated legal representative in the country for its continued operations. As a consequence, the absence of this representation led the STF to initiate restrictions on the organization’s business assets within Brazil, affecting both X and Musk’s additional venture, Starlink.

Influential individuals in Brazil, such as former President Jair Bolsonaro, have been heavily critical of STF’s measures to clamp down on online so-called “hate speech” and “misinformation.” Musk himself has called for retribution against President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silv and Moraes, the latter of whom was a staunch advocate of these federal regulations.

If you’re tired of censorship and surveillance, subscribe to Reclaim The Net.

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

Business

Cannabis Legalization Is Starting to Look Like a Really Dumb Idea

Published on

The Audit David Clinton's avatar David Clinton

Back in March 2024, I wrote about some early indications that Canada’s legalization of cannabis was, on balance, causing more harm than good. Well it looks like we’ve now moved past “early indications” and entered the “nervously searching for the exit” stage.

The new concerns follow the recent release of a couple of groundbreaking Canadian studiesCannabis Use Disorder Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations and 5-Year Mortality which found evidence relating cannabis use to early death, and Convergence of Cannabis and Psychosis on the Dopamine System which describes a possible biological mechanism linking cannabis use to psychosis.

Canadian governments had very little moral liability for the medical consequences of cannabis use before they legalized it in 2018. However, legalization predictably led to a near doubling of consumption. In 2012, according to Statistics Canada, just 12.2 percent of Canadians 15 and over had used cannabis in the previous 12 months. By 2022, that number had climbed to 22 percent – representing nearly seven million Canadians. Cases of cannabis use disorder (CUD) treated in Ontario hospitals increased from just 456 in 2006 to 3,263 in 2021.

The government’s decision to legalize the drug¹ has arguably placed millions of additional people at risk of serious health outcomes.

Let’s take a look at the new evidence. The mortality study used hospital care and mortality data for more than eleven million Ontario residents. The researchers were given meaningful access to raw data from multiple government sources and were apparently compliant with all appropriate privacy regulations. They tracked 107,103 individuals who, between 2006 and 2021, were treated in an Ontario hospital for cannabis use disorder.

The main control group used for statistical comparison was all Ontarians. And the secondary control group was made up of individuals with incident hospital-based care for other substance use disorders, like alcohol, opioids, stimulants.

The primary outcome tracked by the study was all-cause mortality. The secondary outcome was mortality subdivided into alcohol poisoning, opioid poisoning, poisoning by other drugs, trauma, intentional self-harm, cancer, infection, diseases of the circulatory system, respiratory system, and gastrointestinal system.

The researchers adjusted for age, sex, neighborhood income quintile, immigrant status, and rurality (urban vs rural residence). They also controlled for comorbid mental health and care for substance use during the previous 3 years.

In other words, this looks like a well-constructed retrospective study based on excellent data resources.

What did they discover? People who received hospital-based care for cannabis use disorder were six times more likely to die early than the general population. And those CUD-related deaths lead to an average 1.8 life-years lost. After adjusting for demographic factors and other conditions, the added risk of early death was still three times greater than the general population. (Although people with CUD incidents were less likely to die young than those with other substance abuse disorders.)

CUD incidents were associated with increased risks for suicide (9.7 times higher), trauma (4.6 times higher), opioid poisoning (5.3 times higher), and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (2 times higher).

The Convergence of Cannabis and Psychosis study was performed in and around London, Ontario. This one is a bit beyond my technical range, but they claim that:

Elevated dopamine function in a critical SN/VTA subregion may be associated with psychosis risk in people with CUD. Cannabis was associated with the hypothesized final common pathway for the clinical expression of psychotic symptoms.

Which does indicate that there may be more connecting cannabis to overall harm than just social or economic influences.

I’m not suggesting that the government should restore the original ban on cannabis. Like alcohol prohibition, the moment when that might have been possible is now long past. But I am wondering why politicians find it so difficult to wait for even minimal scientific evidence before driving the country over the cliff?

 

1 This should not be confused with the separate question of decriminalization – which has probably provided significant net value to society.
Continue Reading

Business

‘Experts’ Warned Free Markets Would Ruin Argentina — Looks Like They Were Dead Wrong

Published on

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Melissa O’Rourke

The current state of Argentina’s economy is a far cry from what “experts” predicted when they warned that President Javier Milei’s pro-free market leadership would devastate the country.

The chainsaw-wielding libertarian rose to power on promises to slash government spending, implement free-market policies and lift strict currency controls to rescue a nation crippled by inflation, debt and entrenched poverty. Though the pundit class warned that Milei’s policies would spark an economic collapse, the results so far have been a rebuke to those warnings.

Just days before the November 2023 presidential election, 108 economists from around the world signed an open letter claiming that Milei’s “simple solutions” were “likely to cause more devastation in the real world in the short run, while severely reducing policy space in the long run.”

“His policies are poorly thought through. Far from building a consensus, he would struggle to govern,” The Economist’s editorial board wrote in a September 2023 piece describing “Javier Milei’s dangerous allure.”

Well over a year into Milei’s presidency, Argentina is showing its strongest economic performance in years. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) jumped 7.7% in April compared to the same month in 2024, far exceeding expectations.

The GDP is expected to rise by 5.2% in 2025, compared to declines of 1.3% in 2024 and 1.9% in 2023, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Inflation, a long-standing hallmark of Argentina’s economic dysfunction, dropped to 1.5% between April and May, reaching a five-year low. Annual inflation has plunged from 160.9% in November 2023 — just before Milei took office — to 43.5% in May.

Meanwhile, poverty rates have also declined sharply, falling from 52.9% in the first half of 2024 to 38.1% in the second half of the year.

Argentina’s rental housing supply also increased by 212% between December 2023 and June 2024, after Milei repealed the country’s rent control laws, according to the Cato Institute.

“Against the background of a difficult legacy of macroeconomic imbalances, Argentina has embarked on an ambitious reform process, starting with an unprecedented upfront fiscal adjustment. Reforms have started to pay off. Inflation has receded and the economy is set for a strong recovery,” the OECD noted in its new analysis of the Argentinian economy. “Maintaining the reform momentum will be key to restore confidence, boost investment and productivity growth.”

Milei — a self-described anarcho-capitalist — has been an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump’s efforts to downsize the U.S. government, including the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) push to cut spending.

“I come from a country that bought all of those stupid ideas that went from being one of the most affluent countries in the world to one to one of the [poorest],” Milei said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2024. “If you don’t fight for your freedom, they will drag you into misery … Don’t surrender.”

Continue Reading

Trending

X