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Brazil’s Supreme Court lifts ban on social media site X
Brazil’s Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it was lifting a ban on X, after the social media site owned by billionaire Elon Musk had been blocked in its biggest Latin American market for over a month amid a row over disinformation.
“I authorize the immediate return of the activities” of the social platform, Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in his ruling, after X settled millions of dollars in fines for breaching court orders relating to the fight against misinformation.
In late August, Moraes ordered that X be suspended after Musk refused to name a legal representative in Brazil.
Moraes and Musk had been feuding for months over allegations X engaged in obstruction, criminal organization and incitement, namely over allegations that X was supporting a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices.
Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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One person died and several others were injured Thursday when a chemical was released at a Houston-area industrial plant, a Texas sheriff said.
Authorities warned nearby residents to stay inside and close doors and windows.
One of the people injured was transported to a hospital by a helicopter, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wrote on the social platform X. City officials in Pasadena, a Houston suburb, told residents on social media that hydrogen sulfide had been released at a Pemex facility.
Television news crews showed multiple ambulances and emergency vehicles at the scene.
Gonzalez said preliminary information indicated it was a “chemical release” but did not elaborate.
In a statement obtained by CBS affiliate KHOU, Pemex said that the release was first reported at 4:40 p.m. local time at one of its “operating units.”
“The incident is contained to our site and has been isolated,” the statement read. The company added that personnel from several government agencies had responded.
The plant is located in the suburb of Deer Park, where city officials issued a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents “out of precaution.”
In a post to social media late Thursday night, the Deer Park Office of Emergency Management said that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. It said that Harris County agencies were “reporting no hazardous chemicals within the community.”
Houston is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants.
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