Women in Science: EU Records Nearly 7 Million Female Scientists in 2021

February 11, 2023

© Diane Serik | Unsplash

The number of female scientists across European countries increased by 41 per cent in 2021 compared to the previous year, taking the total number of these scientists to 6.9 million.

According to Eurostat, the European Office for Statistics, the difference in the number of female scientists is 369,800 higher than in the preceding year and the majority of these workers are engaged in the services sector as 46 per cent of scientists and engineers are women, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Furthermore, data show that women represented 28 per cent of all employees in the air transport sectors, while they account for 21 per cent of scientists and engineers. On the other hand, water transport sector records the lowest number of transport sector – eight per cent were female, followed by manufacture of transport equipment (12 per cent) and motor vehicles (13 per cent).

Breaking down the data, it is noticeable that women represent 46 per cent of the scientists and engineers in the knowledge-intensive services, while 22 per cent make up the high-technology sectors such as high-technology manufacturing and knowledge-intensive high-technology services, while 18 per cent are engaged in high and medium-technology manufacturing.

As per countries, with the highest proportion of female scientists, Lithuania holds the first position with 52 per cent of people in the field being female scientists and engineers, followed by Bulgaria, Latvia and Portugal (all 51 per cent) while the lowest proportion is recorded in Luxembourg (35 per cent), Germany and Italy (both 34 per cent), Hungary (33 per cent) and Finland (31 per cent).

The data further show that in terms of regions, there are four Spanish regions that have high female scientists and engineers’ percentage; Centre and Canary Islands (both 55 per cent), North-West (52 per cent) and North-East (51 per cent). The Portuguese regions of Região Autónoma dos Açores, Madeira and Continental Portugal, have also a good share of female scientists with 62, 57 and 51 per cent of all scientists and engineers being women, respectively.

“Severna i yugoiztochna in Bulgaria (56 per cent), Makroregion Centralny (55 per cent) and Makroregion Wschodni (53 per cent) in Poland, Northern Sweden (52 per cent), as well as Lithuania (52 per cent) and Latvia (51 per cent),” the press release by Eurostat explains.

On the other hand, regions with the lowest proportion of female workers include German regions of Baden-Württemberg (30 per cent) and Bayern (31 per cent), in addition to the Finnish region of Manner-Suomi and the Hungarian region of Közép-Magyarorszá, which both recorded 31 per cent of the total workers in the field being women.

THE GNOMES OF ZURICH

Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with senior members of JP Morgan, takes part in investment summit 

11 February 2023 - 

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with senior members of the largest investment bank in the world, JP Morgan, and took part via video link in one of the largest annual investment summits organized by JP Morgan, attended by 200 largest corporations, investors, and financial companies.

The parties discussed the creation of a platform for attracting private capital to rebuild Ukraine and promising directions of large investment projects in Ukraine, in particular in the sectors of green energy, IT, and agricultural technologies.

Zelenskyy said that Ukrainians strongly believe in freedom and democracy, and are fighting for it, for the sake of themselves and future generations.

The President also attaches utmost importance to the fact that the world continues to believe in Ukraine, and our country is very open.

"I understand very well that doing business and investing cannot be beneficial to only one party. We want you to invest in Ukraine and earn money," he said.

In addition, Zelenskyy drew attention to the fact that the current war has shown certain weak points both in Ukraine and in other states. In particular, in connection with the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy industry, Ukraine understands that diversification of the electricity supply and the renewable energy development is required. And during the war, Ukraine began the de-centralization of the energy sector and invites foreign investors to cooperate.

The Head of State named the further development of the IT sector, playing a vital role even during the war, another top priority. He also said Ukraine is making and can make an even more important contribution to cyber security in the world, and food security.

"We are proud of our long-standing support of Ukraine and committed to doing our part to lift up the country and its people. The full resources of JPMorgan Chase are available to Ukraine as it charts its post-conflict path to growth," Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said in turn.

During today's meeting, the President and representatives of JP Morgan discussed how such powerful financial structures can help Ukraine today, as well as steps aimed at long-term growth post-conflict.

The importance of the memorandum of understanding signed on February 9 between the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and JP Morgan regarding advising the Government of Ukraine on financial stabilization, sovereign credit ratings, management of government liquidity, economic digitization, and identification of opportunities for establishing close economic ties with Europe was noted.

It was also agreed to include representatives of JP Morgan in the group of advisors and representatives of the financial investment sector of the capital market together with BlackRock.

The meeting was also attended by: Global Head of Alternatives, Asset Management at J.P. Morgan Anton Pil, Head of Debt Capital Markets in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa Stefan Weiler, Global Head of Lending & Deposits, CEO of JPM Wealth Workplace Vince La Padula.

Lawsuit Seeks Medical Testing After Toxic Train Derailment

By The Associated Press

February 11, 2023US

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains, on Feb. 6, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio—Residents who filed a federal lawsuit in the fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line are seeking to force Norfolk Southern to set up health monitoring for residents in both states.

The lawsuit filed Thursday by two Pennsylvania residents calls for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the derailment to determine who was affected by toxic substances released after the derailment. The lawsuit also is seeking undetermined damages.

Portions of a Norfolk and Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio, are still on fire at mid-day, on Feb. 4, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed Feb. 3 in the Ohio village of East Palestine. No one was injured in the derailment that investigators said was caused by a broken axle.

Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.

Environmental regulators have been monitoring the air and water in surrounding communities and have said that so far the air quality remains safe and drinking water supplies have not been affected.

But some residents have complained about headaches and feeling sick since the derailment.

Norfolk Southern declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed on Feb. 3, in East Palestine, Ohio, continues on Feb. 9, 2023. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

Animals reported sickened as more details come out on toxic Norfolk Southern tanker derailment in eastern Ohio

Shannon Jones

WSWS.ORG

Following the all clear for residents of East Palestine, Ohio to return home given by government and company officials in the wake of the catastrophic derailment last week of a train carrying deadly vinyl chloride, there are more reports of health concerns by residents.

Questions have been raised over the broader health impact of the decision of authorities to carry out a “controlled release” Monday of thousands of pounds of the carcinogen vinyl chloride, which were intentionally dumped on the ground and set on fire from five tanker cars. Huge plumes of toxic black smoke could be seen rising into the atmosphere afterwards.

The tanker cars were part of a 50-car derailment last Friday on the Norfolk Southern rail line passing through the small community on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, north of Pittsburgh. Officials had evacuated residents within a one- to two-mile radius of the crash site.

Members of Ohio National Guard 52nd Civil Support Team prepare to enter an incident area to assess remaining hazards with a lightweight inflatable decontamination system (LIDS) in East Palestine, Ohio, Tuesday, February 7, 2023. [AP Photo/Ohio National Guard via AP]

The village of East Palestine, population 4,700, 40 miles south of Youngstown and near the Pennsylvania state line, once had a tire and ceramics industry, but has faced deindustrialization and population decline in recent decades. The town has seen many derailments, including an Amtrak crash in 1973 that killed one and injured 19.

A certified foxkeeper just outside the evacuation zone has reported one of his foxes died after the burn. “Out of nowhere, he just started coughing really hard, just shut down, and he had liquid diarrhea and just went very fast,” Taylor Holzer told WKBN television based in Youngstown. He said all of his foxes have been sick and lethargic since the train derailment February 3. “This is not a fox acts. He is very weak, limp. His eyes are very watery and weepy,” Holzer said, adding that some of the foxes are pacing in their pens, a sign they are unwell.

“People’s cats are getting sick and dying, and people’s other birds that they have in their house that they weren’t being able to evacuate either. It’s just, it’s not safe for them.”

Another resident near the crash told of finding hundreds of dead fish in a stream near their house.

“I’m scared to go back home, ” resident Brittany Dailey told the Associated Press Monday. “I’m eventually going to have to go back, but it makes me want to sell my house and move at this point.”

One resident tweeted, “Some of my friends … returned to their homes a day ago and are now leaving—checking back into their hotel rooms. They are experiencing sickness, lung, breathing, sinusitis problems. Disgusting!”

News video clips showed cleanup workers at the crash site not wearing respirators or other protective equipment, suggesting Norfolk Southern was ignoring the safety of even its own employees in its drive to restore its operations.

At a press briefing Wednesday, Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine had claimed there was no longer any danger to residents. Norfolk Southern resumed trains on the rail line even before residents had returned home.

The press conference was marred by the arrest of NationNews reporter Evan Lambert, who was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by police following a shoving incident apparently initiated by Ohio National Guard chief General John Harris Jr. The blatant attack on freedom of the press has only heightened residents’ suspicions that authorities are engaged in a cover-up of the dangers posed by the “controlled release.”

Already, several class action suits have been filed by local residents over the crash and its aftermath. Local officials complained that Norfolk Southern cleanup crews moving equipment at the crash scene could spread hazardous material on nearby roads. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said he had been promised street sweepers to rectify the situation and expressed anger that train service was so quickly resumed on the rail line.

“Anybody who was in incident command [Wednesday] night can tell that I was not very happy with that,” Conaway said of the resumption of rail operations, noting there was not much he could do “unless I go tie myself to the railroad tracks. …”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the derailment, said that it believes problems with an axle overheating on one of the rail cars caused the accident. At a press conference February 4, NTSB member Michael Graham said that train crew had gotten an alert shortly before the crash and had begun applying the brakes.

On Friday, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that the train had traveled at least 20 miles before the crash with a malfunctioning axle, according to images taken with a video camera by a business located in Salem, Ohio. According to the report, “the southbound freight train passed by Butech Bliss, an industrial equipment manufacturer in Salem. One car, a few dozen behind the first locomotive, glowed brightly on the bottom as it passed.”

“A minute later and a mile down the track, a camera at a meat processing plant called Fresh Mark captured the same fiery axle,” the Post Gazette reported.

Across the tracks from Fresh Mark was a device called a hotbox detector that scans passing trains, and if it detects an axle overheating is supposed to alert train crews. The detectors are spaced 10 to 20 miles apart. The next detector was outside East Palestine. Crews apparently did not get a warning until they were less than one mile out of town. The 20 miles between Salem and East Palestine are mostly rural.

According to a retired train engineer cited by AP, if an alert sounds, the train is supposed to stop and the axle is inspected. A 140-car train like the one that derailed would probably take one mile to stop, he estimated.

An NTSB official said that part of the investigation would be to check the hotbox detectors to make sure they were working.

Federal Railroad Administration data showed that hazardous materials were released in 11 railroad accidents in 2022. There were 20 such incidents in both 2018 and 2020.

The danger of catastrophic accidents is increasing as all the major railroads have slashed thousands of jobs and reduced the size of train crews to cut costs. Railroads are running longer and longer trains with smaller crews. According to an interview with Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, published by the Associated Press, inspectors used to get two minutes to inspect a rail car but now get 30 to 45 seconds. Signalmen who maintain crossing guards and safety signals along the tracks have larger territories to cover.

SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH

The Dark Side of Sports Stadiums

ROBERT REICH

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Billionaires have found one more way to funnel our tax dollars into their bank accounts: sports stadiums. And if we don’t play ball, they’ll take our favorite teams away.

Ever notice how there never seems to be enough money to build public infrastructure like mass transit lines and better schools? And yet, when a multi-billion-dollar sports team demands a new stadium, our local governments are happy to oblige.

A good example of this billionaire boondoggle is the host of the 2023 Super Bowl: State Farm Stadium.

That’s where the Arizona Cardinals have played since 2006. It was finally built after billionaire team owner Michael Bidwill and his family spent years hinting that they would move the Cards out of Arizona if the team didn’t get a new stadium. Their blitz eventually worked, with Arizona taxpayers and the city of Glendale paying over two thirds of the $455 million construction tab.

And State Farm Stadium is not unique. It’s part of a well established playbook.

Here’s how stadiums stick the public with the bill.

Step 1: Billionaire buys a sports team.

Just about every NFL franchise owner has a net worth of over a billion dollars — except for the Green Bay Packers, who are publicly owned by half a million cheeseheads.

The same goes for many franchise owners in other sports. Their fortunes don’t just help them buy teams, but also give them clout — which they cash-in when they want to get a great deal on new digs for their team.

Step 2: Billionaire pressures local government.

Since 1990, franchises in major North American sports leagues have intercepted upwards of $30 billion worth of taxpayer funds from state and local governments to build stadiums.  

And the funding itself is just the beginning of these sweetheart deals.

Sports teams often get big property tax breaks and reimbursements on operating expenses, like utilities and security on game days. Most deals also let the owners keep the revenue from naming rights, luxury box seats, and concessions — like the Atlanta Braves’ $150 hamburger.

Even worse, these deals often put taxpayers on the hook for stadium maintenance and repairs.

We taxpayers are essentially paying for the homes of our favorite sports teams, but we don’t really own those homes, we don’t get to rent them out, and we still have to buy expensive tickets to visit them.

Whenever these billionaire owners try to sell us on a shiny new stadium, they claim it will spur economic growth from which we’ll all benefit.  But numerous studies have shown that this is false.

As a University of Chicago economist aptly put it, “If you want to inject money into the local economy, it would be better to drop it from a helicopter than invest it in a new ballpark.”

But what makes sports teams special is they are one of the few realms of collective identity we have left.

Billionaires prey on the love that millions of fans have for their favorite teams.

This brings us to the final step in the playbook: Threaten to move the team.

Obscenely rich owners threaten to — or actually do — rip teams out of their communities if they don’t get the subsidies they demand.

Just look at the Seattle Supersonics. Starbucks’ founder Howard Schultz owned the NBA franchise but failed to secure public funding to build a new stadium. So the coffee magnate sold the team to another wealthy businessman who moved it to Oklahoma.

The most egregious part of how the system currently works is that every dollar we spend building stadiums is a dollar we aren’t using for hospitals or housing or schools.

We are underfunding public necessities in order to funnel money to billionaires for something they could feasibly afford.

So, instead of spending billions on extravagant stadiums, we should be investing taxpayer money in things that improve the lives of everyone — not just the bottom lines of profitable sports teams and their owners.  

Because when it comes to stadium deals, the only winners are billionaires.

(Source: youtube.com)

IMF delays crucial bailout for cash-strapped Pakistan

Pakistan’s economy has been in dire straits due to dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

Scroll Staff
2 hours ago

Government officials and IMF team holding bailout talks. 

| Pakistan Press Information Department/AFP

The International Monetary Fund on Friday said that “considerable progress” was made during talks with cash-strapped Pakistan but did not announce any financial aid for the country.

Islamabad is seeking $1.1 billion (INR 9,074.44 crore) from the international lender – part of its $6 billion (INR 49,496.97 crore) bailout package – to avert economic collapse. The $1.1 billion payment has been stalled since December.

After an International Monetary Fund team left Pakistan on Friday after 10 days of talks with the government, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the payment was delayed because of “routine procedures”, Reuters reported.

In a statement, Pakistan International Monetary Fund Mission Chief Nathan Porter said that the negotiations will continue virtually in the coming days.

Khaqan Najeeb, a former finance ministry adviser, told Reuters that the delay in releasing the much-needed loan is untenable.

Pakistan’s economy has been in dire straits due to dwindling foreign exchange reserves. Analysts fear the reserves would last less than 20 days and warned that any delay in the International Monetary Fund bailout could have damaging consequences.

In January, the year-on-year inflation had risen to a 48-year high, leaving Pakistanis struggling to afford basic food items.

The country’s economic crisis was exacerbated by last year’s devastating floods that displaced nearly 3.3 crore people of its 23 crore population and destroyed crops over large tracts of land.

Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said that the economic situation was unimaginable. “The conditions we will have to agree to with the IMF are beyond imagination,” he added. “But we will have to agree with the conditions.”

Also read

:How Pakistan’s massive power outage has reaffirmed fears of a Sri Lanka-style economic collapse

Why Pakistan has not seen any major public protests despite extreme economic hardship

Crore - Wikipedia 

A crore denotes ten million and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group ...

Five million may be homeless in Syria after quake: UN

UN official in Syria says the ‘crisis within a crisis’ is also making the delivery of aid more difficult.

People take shelter inside a mosque, following an earthquake, in Jableh, Syria, on February 9, 2023. [Yamam al Shaar/Reuters]

Published On 11 Feb 2023

More than five million Syrians may be homeless after Monday’s devastating earthquakes that struck the country and its neighbour Turkey, according to a United Nations official.

“As many as 5.3 million people in Syria may have been left homeless by the earthquake,” Sivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday. “That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement.”

“For Syria, this is a crisis within a crisis,” he added, “We’ve had economic shocks, COVID and are now in the depths of winter, with blizzards raging in the affected areas.”

Survivors of the magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 quakes have flocked to camps set up for people displaced by nearly 12 years of war from other parts of Syria. Many lost their homes or are too scared to return to damaged buildings.

Some 24,000 people have already died across Turkey and Syria because of the quake – more than 3,300 of those in Syria.

Dhanapala said the UNHCR has been “rushing aid” to the badly affected parts of Syria, but “it’s been very, very difficult”.

“There are 6.8 million people already internally displaced in the country. And this was before the earthquake.”

Meanwhile, a second UN aid convoy of 14 trucks has crossed into rebel-held areas of Syria – after an initial six vehicles went in on Thursday.

The Syrian government has said it will allow aid deliveries to rebel-held areas outside of its control, in cooperation with the UN and humanitarian organisations.

“The full scale of the devastation in Syria is only beginning to come to light,” said Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the UN in New York.

Although more aid convoys are getting through the one authorised border point into the hardest-hit areas, our correspondent said critics argue it is too little, too late.

“The majority of [people made homeless from the quake are] in areas the Syrian government doesn’t control, where people had already been uprooted by years of war,” she said.

On Friday the UN also released another $25m in emergency funding for Syria, bringing the total so far to $50m, Saloomey said, “but an assessment team is now on the ground and the needs are expected to well exceed that”.

The conflict in Syria started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful protests, and escalated to pull in foreign powers and armed groups.

Nearly half a million people have been killed, and the conflict has forced about half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes, with many seeking refuge in Turkey.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Aid trickles in as death toll from Turkey-Syria quakes surpasses 24,000

Issued on: 11/02/2023 - 

International aid was trickling into parts of Turkey and Syria on Saturday where rescuers toiled to pull children from rubble in areas devastated by a massive earthquake that has killed over 24,000 people.

A winter freeze in the affected areas has hurt rescue efforts and compounded the suffering of millions of people, many in desperate need of aid.

At least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries after the quake, which has left up to 5.3 million people homeless in Syria alone, the UN warned.

Aftershocks following Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor have added to the death toll and further upended the lives of survivors.

The United Nations World Food Programme appealed for $77 million to provide food rations to at least 590,000 newly displaced people in Turkey and 284,000 in Syria.

Of those, 545,000 were internally displaced people and 45,000 were refugees, it said.
Humanitarian access

The UN rights office on Friday urged all actors in the affected area — where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate — to allow humanitarian access.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, announced a temporary halt in fighting to ease recovery work.

In rebel-held northwestern Syria, about four million people rely on humanitarian relief but there have been no aid deliveries from government-controlled areas in three weeks.

(with AFP)