The Telegraph
Devastation as 500 tanker blast destroys Afghanistan-Iran customs post
A catastrophic explosion and fire at an Afghan customs depot has destroyed hundreds of fuel tankers and caused traders tens of millions of pounds of losses. A series of blasts hurled lorries hundreds of yards into the air and deposited the crumpled remains of fuel tanks as far as half a mile from the blast site. Nasa satellites could reportedly see the blast from space and the fire was so intense that Afghan officials appealed to neighbouring Iran for help. The blast on the Iranian border in Western Afghanistan destroyed as much as $50 million worth of vehicles and goods, the local chamber of commerce said. “It’s a huge catastrophe for the private sector,” said Younis Qazizada, a spokesman for the chamber. Health officials in the nearby city of Herat said only 17 people had been injured, but with the customs depot entirely incinerated, there were fears bodies would only be found later. The cause of the blast was unknown, officials said. “The devastation is much higher than we imagined,” said Mr Qazizada. “There’s no infrastructure remaining at all.” Some estimates put the number of destroyed fuel tankers as high as 500. The blast site was still smouldering on Sunday. Electricity pylons had been knocked down by the force of the blast and the highway next to the depot was blocked by incinerated vehicles. Crowds looted many of the remaining lorries and on Sunday there were repeated bursts of gunfire as soldiers tried to keep order. Local traders blamed delays by customs officials for building a dangerous backlog of tankers are the border. Iranian state media said the country had sent several helicopters, 11 fire engines and 21 ambulances to the scene after requests for help from the local governor. Units of the Iranian Army’s Ground Force were also sent to the border area and the Iranian police were drafted into rescue operations.
National Review
Democrats Flirt with Destroying Another Senate Guardrail
Senate Democrats considering the destruction of another set of Senate rules might want to heed the words of English lawyer and chancellor Sir Thomas More to his son-in-law centuries ago: And Richard, once you have cut down all the trees, where will you hide when the devil comes for you? Then-Senator Harry Reid started this clearcutting of the rules back in 2013. He used the “nuclear option” to lower the vote threshold for confirmation in order to stack the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Senator Mitch McConnell escalated by using the same standard to confirm Supreme Court nominees. As Majority Leader Chuck Schumer toys with the idea of blowing up the legislative filibuster as well, he is potentially poised to first unravel another important — if lesser-known — Senate Rule in pursuit of an all-encompassing COVID-relief bill under the terms of “budget reconciliation.” We’re talking about the Byrd Rule (named after the late Senator Robert Byrd), which limits the ability of the majority to stuff extraneous legislative goodies into budget-related proposals and still pass them with a simple-majority vote under that process. Senator Byrd saw the danger of using reconciliation, which limits amendments and debate, to pursue broader, non-budgetary legislation outside regular order. As a defender of the right of all senators to debate and amend legislation, he fastened these restrictions onto the reconciliation process. This is for the greater good: the Byrd Rule protects Social Security from the reconciliation process, for instance, while limiting committees to proposals in their jurisdiction and requiring that the budget relevance of any proposal considered under this process be more than “merely incidental.” What this means is that major legislative policy changes can be made only when all senators have the right to fully debate and amend legislation — and to filibuster. Reconciliation otherwise “streamlines” this process at the expense of the minority. Today, fueled by rage and revenge, the leaders of the Senate care nothing for the reasons behind the rules; they want only to pass their legislation as quickly as possible. Most of the attention these past weeks has gone to the $15 minimum wage contained inside the COVID-relief package. This hardly meets the reconciliation standard on its own, but there will be other violations of the Byrd Rule in the bill the House will send to the Senate. That’s why Senate Democrats could aim to break the glass on Senate rules. As described by parliamentary expert Martin Gold, there are two ways to achieve this. First, there’s the more targeted attack on the Byrd Rule. Say Vice President Harris is in the chair when a senator raises a point of order against, for example, the minimum-wage hike. The Senate parliamentarian advises her that this particular section of the reconciliation bill is out of order. Despite all evidence and precedent that the section is out of order, the VP rules otherwise. Now the section takes only a simple majority to pass. However, if a senator who supports the Byrd Rule challenges the ruling of the chair, it will require a 60-vote majority to overrule Harris. That’s a high bar. So here, the chair’s judgment, which likely would stand, changes the precedent so that any other item in the bill that violates the Byrd Rule can be ruled acceptable under the new standard just established by the vice president. Republicans would have loved this when they were trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, but they respected Senate rules protecting the rights of the minority. This limited, surgical strike on the Byrd Rule would still disrupt the precedent in perpetuity. Meanwhile, there’s a broader attack that could be implemented. In this scenario, the majority leader addresses the chair and says that waiving the Byrd Rule only takes a simple-majority vote. It is clear under the rules and the precedents that this is false. If the chair rules that it takes 60 votes to waive the Byrd Rule, the majority leader then appeals the ruling of the chair, which takes a simple-majority vote to overturn. Bingo — the protections of the Byrd Rule are dead, and now it takes only a simple-majority vote to put any legislative proposal the majority wants into the budget-reconciliation bill, bypassing legitimate debate and amendment. The result of this action would threaten any rule in the Senate. If at any time the majority wants to get rid of any rule, all they would have to do is appeal the ruling of the chair and muster a simple majority — silencing the opposition and forcing their will on the American people. Once upon a time, the U.S. Senate was called the world’s greatest deliberative body. As envisioned by Thomas Jefferson, there were rules that protected the minority and allowed for thorough debate. Sadly, it appears this current Senate majority cares little for the precedents that earned the U.S. Senate that title. But some caution on their part might be well-advised self-interest; tables have been known to turn.
Reuters
Nigeria’s president calls for calm after clashes in southwest Oyo state
Clashes between traders from the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups broke out on Saturday at Shasha market in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo, the state governor’s spokesman said. Most Yoruba live in southwestern Nigeria, while the Hausa are concentrated in northern states. Tensions have increased in southwestern states in recent weeks amid claims by public figures that nomadic cattle herders from the mainly northern Fulani ethnic group are carrying out violent crimes, which the pastoralists have denied.
Associated Press Videos
Wintry weather in US making rare dip to Gulf Coast
Winter weather conditions are affecting large portions of the U.S., but it is rare for them to extend so far south. The storm is prompting canceled flights, making driving perilous and reaching into areas like Texas’ Gulf Coast. (Feb. 14)
Associated Press
Reports: Israeli strike near Syrian capital kills 6 fighters
Israel fired several missiles early on Monday targeting areas near the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syria’s state news agency reported. An opposition war-monitoring group said the strikes killed six Iran-backed fighters. The SANA news agency claimed that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles, which it said were fired from Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Associated Press
Power cut across Texas as snow, ice blanket southern Plains
A winter storm dropping snow and ice also sent temperatures plunging across the southern Plains, prompting a power emergency in Texas a day after conditions canceled flights and impacted traffic across large swaths of the U.S. Rotating power outages were initiated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, early Monday morning, meaning hundreds of thousands went without electricity for short periods as temperatures fell into the teens near Dallas and 20s (about minus 5 degrees Celsius) around Houston. “We urge Texans to put safety first,” ERCOT tweeted as it urged residents to reduce electricity use.
The Telegraph
Catalan separatists win over half the votes in regional election for first time as far-Right gains ground
Catalan separatist parties have won more than 50 per cent of the vote in local elections for the first time, with the result from Sunday’s poll showing that the question of independence for Catalonia will continue to destabilise Spanish politics. Quim Torra, the region’s former president, described the fact that separatist parties had won 51 per cent of the vote as “historic”, even though turnout was down by around 25 percentage points on 2017 because of the Covid pandemic. The election was called because Mr Torra was barred from public office last autumn after Spain’s courts found him guilty of disobedience for refusing to remove pro-independence symbols from public buildings during previous election campaigns. Carles Puigdemont, who illegally declared Catalonia’s secession from Spain in 2017, said the result obliged Catalan parties to make a renewed push for independence. “Our duty is to try to execute this message explicitly because now we have the strength to do so”, Mr Puigdemont said from Belgium.
Reuters
J&J’s vaccine implementation study in S.Africa gets regulator nod
South Africa’s drugs regulator SAHPRA said on Monday it has approved an implementation study of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, clearing the way to start the country’s first inoculations among health workers. South Africa is yet to start its COVID-19 vaccination programme and the government has decided to go with the J&J dose after trial results this month showed AstraZeneca’s two-shot vaccine was less effective against the new variant of the coronavirus dominating South African infections. “SAHPRA has approved the implementation study,” the regulator said in response to Reuters questions, but added it was still reviewing its separate full market application.
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