WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will approve two controversial oil pipelines by executive order Tuesday, US media reported.
He is expected to okay the Keystone XL pipeline — which would carry crude from Canada to US refineries on the Gulf Coast — and an equally controversial pipeline crossing in North Dakota, Fox News and Bloomberg reported.
Former president Barack Obama had rejected Keystone under pressure from environmental activists.
The Canadian government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cautiously supported the plan, seeing it as a means of boosting business.
But Canada’s liberal leader has also helped wage the international charge against climate change.
The Dakota Access Pipeline has become more of a political hot potato in the United States.
Native Americans and their supporters strongly protested against the project, prompting the US Army Corps of engineers — which has approval authority — to nix the plans under the Obama administration.
Thousands had camped in freezing winter temperatures to block the oleoduct’s planned route.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is concerned about potential water pollution, saying the pipeline’s route endangers areas with sacred historic artifacts.
The standoff — which included some 2,000 military veterans who joined the protest — prompted violent clashes with law enforcement as well as sympathetic demonstrations nationwide.
But Trump has supported the 1,172-mile (1,886-kilometer) oil pipeline, which would snake through four US states.
Trump to approve controversial Keystone, Dakota pipelines
Trump to approve controversial Keystone, Dakota pipelines
Brazil court rejects new Bolsonaro appeal against coup conviction
- The far-right firebrand, in office from 2019 to 2022, was found guilty of having led a scheme to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after Bolsonaro’s failed re-election bid
BRASILIA: A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday rejected a fresh appeal by jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro against his coup conviction, declaring it inadmissible, according to a court document seen by AFP.
Bolsonaro, 70, began serving a 27-year sentence in November after the country’s highest court declared he had exhausted all appeals.
Nevertheless, his attorneys filed an appeal on the merits of the case three days after he was jailed.
Bolsonaro’s earlier failed legal effort targeted “ambiguities, omissions, and contradictions” in the trial.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial against Bolsonaro, said he did not recognize the fresh appeal, which requires two judges to have voted against a conviction.
Only one of five judges on the Supreme Court panel voted not to convict Bolsonaro.
The far-right firebrand, in office from 2019 to 2022, was found guilty of having led a scheme to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after Bolsonaro’s failed re-election bid.
He has maintained his innocence, declaring he was a victim of political persecution.
The conservative-controlled Congress this week passed a law that could reduce Bolsonaro’s sentence to just over two years.
Lula has vowed to veto the law, however Congress has the last word and can override him.
On Friday, in response to a request from Bolsonaro’s lawyers, the Supreme Court authorized his transfer to a hospital in Brasilia for surgery to treat recurring hiccups and an inguinal hernia.
Earlier Friday, police said in a statement that an official medical exam confirmed Bolsonaro has a hernia “that requires elective surgical repair.”
According to the statement, medical experts recommended the procedures take place “as soon as possible” due to the impact of Bolsonaro’s health issues on his sleep and eating habits, and an “increased risk of complications from the hernia.”
Bolsonaro has a history of abdominal issues after being stabbed during his 2018 election campaign, and has required several follow-up surgeries.
His lawyers have also requested Bolsonaro be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest for health reasons, but Moraes rejected that request Friday.
Bolsonaro had been under house arrest until shortly before the official start of his jail term, when he was detained after he took a soldering iron to his ankle monitoring bracelet in what the court saw as an escape attempt.
The former president said he was acting under medication-induced paranoia.
