Israel’s block of AP transmission shows how ambiguity in law could restrict war coverage



A screenshot taken from AP video showing a general view of northern Gaza as seen from Southern Israel, before it was seized by Israeli officials on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Israeli officials seized a camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating the country’s new ban on Al Jazeera. Shortly before the equipment was seized, it was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. (AP Photo)Read More

AP video equipment is laid on the floor of an apartment block in Sderot, Southern Israel, shortly before it was seized by Israeli officials, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Israeli officials seized the camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating the country’s new ban on Al Jazeera. Shortly before the equipment was seized, it was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. (AP Photo/Josphat Kasire)


BY DAVID BAUDER
May 21, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Israel’s shutdown and seizure of an Associated Press video camera that provided a live glimpse into Gaza alarmed many journalists, who worried Tuesday about wider implications for coverage of a war largely fought out of the world’s sight to begin with.

After widespread condemnation, including a call by the Biden administration for Israel to back off, authorities returned the AP’s equipment late Tuesday. Israel had justified its move by saying the agency violated a new media law that bans Al Jazeera, since the Qatari satellite channel is one of thousands of customers that receive live AP video.

By early Wednesday, the AP’s live video of Gaza was back up in Israel.

The camera confiscated earlier, located in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, was not the only one the AP operated in Israel or Gaza — the company would not say how many it uses regularly — nor is the AP the only news organization to do so. Agence France-Presse confirmed it has frequently used such cameras in Israel and also sells its images to Al Jazeera.

“Israel’s move to restrict AP’s work today is extremely concerning and a clear attack on press freedom,” said Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director.

News organizations expressed worry about the potential ambiguity in how Israel’s law could be enforced. What, they asked, prevents Israel from shutting down the news cooperative’s operations in the country altogether?

“It also could allow Israel to block media coverage of virtually any news event on vague security grounds,” Israel’s Foreign Press Association said in a statement.

OTHERS ARE LIKELY WATCHING ISRAEL’S ACTIONS

Israel also denies foreign journalists entry into Gaza to cover a war that began following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks inside the Jewish state, and has been criticized for not doing enough to protect Palestinian journalists and civilians.

The country “seems to be grasping at anything that hurts Al Jazeera,” said Thomas Kent, former president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and an international consultant on media ethics. Its latest step damages a reputable news organization at a time the country would seem to want independent news coverage, Kent said.

A democracy acting in this way also sends a disturbing signal to authoritarian countries, he said. “You have to look at the larger picture,” said Kent, also a former standards editor and international correspondent at the AP. “They’re giving fuel to other countries that would love to seize equipment and shut down transmissions.”

The move against the AP set off a debate within Israel. Yair Lapid, opposition leader to the Netanyahu government, called it an “act of madness.” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who accused the AP of violating the country’s law, said it clearly states that any device used to deliver content to Al Jazeera could be seized.

“We will continue to act decisively against anyone who tries to harm our soldiers and the security of the state, even if you don’t like it,” Karhi responded to Lapid on X.

The AP’s camera in Sderot was operated 24 hours a day and was also attended by staff members. A staffer can be used to move or focus the camera to cover news that may be happening, and also to avoid capturing military moves. The AP says it complies with military censorship rules that prohibit the broadcast of troop movements that could endanger soldiers.

STATIONARY CAMERAS ARE COMMON

News organizations frequently place cameras that can operate remotely at various places around the globe, either in an area where news is happening or simply to provide a view of a city skyline.

These shots have many uses — providing a backdrop for a television station reporting on developments, or as a livestream feature on a website. Earlier in the Gaza war, footage from such cameras helped news organizations conduct forensic investigations into who was responsible for a military strike on a Palestinian hospital.

The AP is the biggest supplier of live video news coverage to newsrooms across the world, said AP Vice President Paul Haven, the agency’s head of news gathering.

“Our live video provides a window of what’s happening around the world on any given day, allowing audiences to see events for themselves as they unfold,” Haven said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “deeply disturbed” by Israel’s actions on Tuesday. Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ program director, said the country should allow all international media outlets, including Al Jazeera, to operate freely in the country.

While Israel’s return of the equipment is a positive development, the underlying issue has not disappeared.

“We remain concerned about the Israeli government’s use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel,” said AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton.
___

David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.

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How students can detonate mass action

Student revolts for Palestine have exploded in universities across the world. Campuses can be fertile ground for resistance and militant action.

By Sophie Squire
Wednesday 22 May 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2906

The student encampment bloc at the national demonstration for Palestine

A student revolt has exploded across the world. There are around 130 encampments for Gaza in the United States, around 30 in Britain, and more at universities globally. It marks a qualitative shift in the scale of protests in the Palestine liberation movement. Why are the campuses such fertile ground for resistance?

Whether fighting against university fees, the climate crisis or Palestine, students have repeatedly shown they can be the most militant, creative and energetic sections of any movement. But this has not always been the case. Universities were once training grounds for the children of the ruling class. For hundreds of years, they were elite clubs.

And many ordinary people today are still locked out, with only 35 percent of young people going to university in 2023. But it has changed as capitalism has expanded. The bosses realised they needed a better-trained workforce to operate their new machines and technology, maintain their system and train the next generation of workers. After the Second World War, as capitalism entered an unprecedented boom, those in charge made a big push for much wider sections of society to enter higher education.

And even after the coalition of the Lib Dems and the Tories reintroduced university fees, which raised tuition fees above £9,000, students are still flocking to higher education. In 2021 the number of students in Britain reached record levels, with nearly three million students at university. Attending university can lead to people being more wedded to the current system, believing that university can lead to a higher status, better jobs and better wages. It can be a means of fulfilling the aspirations of a “good” life under capitalism.

But when those aspirations aren’t fulfilled, it can also fuel resentment against the system. The post-war period has seen millions more students, often from different geographical areas and backgrounds, thrust together in institutions that claim to encourage debate and the exchange of knowledge. This means that campuses are contested places ideologically—and so radical ideas can flourish.

Another reason political activity has the potential to explode in universities is that most students aren’t bound by the grind of wage labour like workers. While students are increasingly being forced to work while they study, many still have time to organise and mobilise in a way that those in full-time work struggle to do. And students can fight as a minority. Any section of students can go and set up an encampment on campus.

Whereas in a workplace, you generally have to mobilise the majority of the workplace to strike or walkout. However, these favourable conditions don’t mean university campuses are automatically liberated spaces where ideas can flow freely. As in any arm of the state, universities are places where the ruling class can express and disseminate their ideas.

And increasingly, with the marketisation and privatisation of universities, administrations are looking to sell education for profit and stamp out dissent. The Tories have given the go-ahead for university bosses to attack mainly arts and humanities subjects by slashing funding. In the present day, this has led to university administrations pushing forward with widespread redundancies of workers.

Yet despite victorious ruling class attacks on education, students remain a force to be reckoned with, as the pro-Palestine encampments have shown. Many have already begun to compare student mobilisations today to the wave of protests on campuses in 1968. No year revealed the power of students more than that year.

The spirit of revolt spread across the world, with students rising in their millions from France to Mexico to the US. Protests organised by students against US involvement in the Vietnam War became some of the biggest in the country’s history. The launch of the Tet Offensive by the Vietnamese resistance in January 1968 shook US society. Tension on campus rose, and students organised sit-ins, occupations and marches.

Thousands of students joined the protests at the Democratic National Convention in August of that year. And students globally didn’t just battle against imperialist war. Mexican students rose up, partly to rage against their government’s lavish spending on the Olympics in Mexico City.

They were angry that while the government spent millions, most Mexicans were living in dire poverty. Their protests came to a head on 2 October 1968 when an estimated 15,000 students took to the streets of Mexico City chanting, “No queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolución!—We don’t want Olympics, we want revolution!”

But the Mexican state was ready for them. The army murdered up to 400 people, and the streets ran with blood. It was a show of how ruling classes can fear the power of students and go to terrible lengths to suppress them. Students also offered up some of the strongest opposition to Stalinism.

When Russian tanks crossed the Czechoslovakian border in August 1968 to depose the Communist Party leader, Alexander Dubcek students were some of the first to fight back. They took to the streets, faced down the tanks, and won support from workers. This insurrection made space for discussion about a socialism that looked nothing like the bureaucracy and repression of Stalinism.

All of these struggles fed into each other, inspiring and prompting new groups of students to rise up across the world. The 1968 risings led some to believe that students, not workers, could be a vanguard for revolution. And in the decades following the 1970s, when workers’ struggle faded, it isn’t hard to see why some looked to other subjects to fight for liberation.

But acting alone, students cannot topple governments or shut down society in the way that workers can. It is still only workers that have the power to usher in a revolutionary transformation of society. Of course, this doesn’t mean students should pack up their tents, leave their occupations and let the organised working class get on with it.

When workers and students fight together, they can be a formidable force. And students can act as a detonator for wider movements. In May 1968, students in Paris, France, showed that they were just that. Students were already radicalising against the Vietnam War and the constraints of their curriculum.

Other students were angry about the conditions they were forced to study in and the stultifying conformity that pervaded social life. The family was taken to mean a man working while a woman toiled at home. Men and women were kept in separate university halls. After being under construction for six years, Nanterre university, in the Paris suburbs, still needed to be completed.

Yet it was meant to be home to more than 12,000 students, who were forced to live and study on what was essentially a building site. Anger at the administration boiled over, and they occupied a building and brought the protest to the prestigious Sorbonne University. The police brutally repressed this protest.

All night, students continued to join the protests and fight the cops. Police violence provoked sympathy for the students among workers. People let injured students into their homes and threw water on the ground to neutralise the tear gas.

The students kept going despite the cop attacks, and on 10 May, 50,000 marched and occupied the Sorbonne. The police once again attacked them. The tenacity and courage displayed by the students won them real support from the working class and unions.

It was so great that the CGT and Force Ouvriere, two of France’s biggest union federations, called a one-day strike to support the student demonstrations. As many as ten million people joined the strike that day, giving workers a real glimpse of their power and potential. Socialist Worker wrote that workers at the Sud-Aviation factory—who were some of the first to occupy their workplace—were inspired by seeing students fighting back.

“A whole unknown world was revealed to the startled eyes of the majority of workers —a world of struggling students which had been forgotten… Sud‑Aviation suddenly felt less alone,” it wrote. Workers spread strikes and occupations. By 20 May, most industry sectors had been affected, and nine million workers were on indefinite strike. The general strike showed workers that they could bring society to a standstill and run it.

While eventually union leaders sold out the workers to regain control, this general strike, sparked by students, showed the potential of workers to control society. The lessons of 1968, in France and elsewhere, are that students have real power to galvanise and spark wider revolts against the system.

UK

Morrisons loses appeal bid over staff member death



Mr Gunn died after a fall at a Morrisons in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

 (Andrew Matthews/PA)
By Callum Parke,

PA Law Reporter

Today 


Supermarket chain Morrisons has lost a bid to overturn convictions for health and safety failures after an epileptic employee died following a fall from a staircase during a seizure.

Matthew Gunn died 12 days after suffering catastrophic head injuries at the WM Morrisons store in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in September 2014.

The company was fined £3.5 million in March last year after it was convicted of three health and safety offences.

It also admitted a fourth charge.

The Bradford-based firm applied to the Court of Appeal for the green light to challenge the convictions, with lawyers telling a hearing on Wednesday that health and safety laws were incorrectly interpreted at trial.

But three judges dismissed the appeal bid, stating that steps “could have been taken” to mitigate the risks posed.

Lord Justice William Davis said: “We accept that the staircase did not present a risk for almost all members of staff at the store.

“In our judgment that is not the point. It created a material risk to the health and safety of Matthew Gunn.”

Mr Gunn, 27, who worked as a shelf replenisher, regularly used the staircase to access his locker on the first floor of the shop, where he stored his belongings in line with company policy.

There was ample evidence that the conduct of the company exposed Matthew Gunn to a real riskLord Justice William Davis

He never regained consciousness after his fall on September 25 2014, and died on October 7 that year.

Gloucester Crown Court heard that Mr Gunn died three-and-a-half months after his mother had warned managers of the risk to her son due to his frequent seizures, with prosecutors telling jurors there was a “highly likely high level of harm occurring”.

Morrisons was convicted in February 2023 of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees; failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of employees; and failing to review the risks and assessments of employees.


The company also admitted an offence of failing to comply with a request made by an HSE inspector for contact details of a person the inspector wanted to speak to, between May 26 2015 and February 26 2020.

Mr Gunn’s mother Sue Goellner, who attended Wednesday’s hearing via a video link, said at sentencing that her son’s death had “left a massive hole in my heart” and she had lost her job as a result and her marriage had ended.

Passing sentence, Judge Moira Macmillan said the company “fell short of the standards expected” and failed to treat Mr Gunn “as an individual”.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Richard Atkins KC, representing Tewkesbury Borough Council, which brought the prosecution, said Morrisons was aware of the nature of Mr Gunn’s health and had records of him falling on stairs due to his epilepsy.

He also told the court that while Mr Gunn’s locker was initially on the ground floor of the store, it was later moved upstairs without a risk assessment being carried out, stating “there is nothing wrong with the outcome of the case”.

Richard Matthews KC, for Morrisons, described the case as “tragic” but said a “control measure to forbid Matthew from using the stairs” was not an option.

No one can or should suggest that every staircase, fixed staircase, in a workplace, with a lift, has to have a rule that epileptics who may have a severe epileptic seizure are not permitted to use itRichard Matthews KC

He told the court that the stairs were a safe “means of access” and a lift was also available.

He said: “No one can or should suggest that every staircase, fixed staircase, in a workplace, with a lift, has to have a rule that epileptics who may have a severe epileptic seizure are not permitted to use it.”

He added: “If this court finds that as a matter of law, which it would have to do, a fixed permanent staircase used as a means of access amounted to that person a material risk to their health and safety, that has enormous ramifications.”

But refusing the appeal bid, Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge Dennis Watson KC, said: “There was ample evidence that the conduct of the company exposed Matthew Gunn to a real risk.

“The event that led to Matthew Gunn’s death was one that had been feared by his mother, his colleagues and the company’s occupational health officer.

“All these fears were made known to the company.”

The judges also awarded Tewkesbury Borough Council £20,000 in costs.

IT'S THE LAW
  IN  CANADA    

Confidential UN Report Exposes Lazarus Group’s $147.5M Stolen Crypto Transfer to North Korea

Author: Chayanika Deka 

Last Updated May 19, 2024


A UN report shows that North Korean hackers sent millions of stolen cryptocurrency through Tornado Cash last year.

A confidential United Nations report obtained by Reuters reveals that North Korea’s notorious cybercriminal group known as the Lazarus Group transferred millions of stash of stolen cryptocurrency back to the Asian country last year.

In March 2023, these North Korean hackers illicitly took $147.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from HTX, a crypto exchange owned by TRON founder Justin Sun. A year later, they funneled the funds into the isolated nation using the sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

North Korea’s Cyber Warfare

According to a report submitted last week, the monitors told a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions committee that they had been probing 97 suspected North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency firms between 2017 and 2024, valued at approximately $3.6 billion.

The monitors also reported that North Korean IT workers abroad earn significant income for their country based on information from U.N. member states and private companies. They were also looking into a New York Times report from February 6, which claimed that Russia had released $9 million out of $30 million in frozen North Korean assets and had permitted Pyongyang to open an account at a Russian bank in South Ossetia, facilitating better access to international banking networks.

The Lazarus Group and other North Korean hackers have executed some of the most lucrative hacks in the crypto and DeFi sectors, and Tornado Cash has been their go-to tumbler.

In 2022, the US sanctioned Tornado Cash, accusing it of aiding North Korea. In 2023, two of its co-founders were charged with facilitating over $1 billion in money laundering, including for a cybercrime group associated with North Korea.
North Korea’s Diverse Targets in $1B Crypto Theft

An earlier report released by the UNSC revealed that North Korea acquired 50% of its foreign exchange earnings from cyberattacks. The nation expanded its targeting of cryptocurrency platforms in 2023, hitting more than ever before.

However, the total amount stolen was lower compared to 2022, according to Chainalysis. Despite this decrease, the number of hacks reached a record high of 20, coinciding with a general downturn in the crypto market.

In 2023, the blockchain analysis firm estimated that the total stolen cryptocurrency amounted to just over $1 billion. Notably, North Korean hackers concentrated on DeFi, stealing approximately $429 million in the process. They also targeted centralized services, exchanges, and wallet providers, where they pilfered $150 million, $330.9 million, and $127 million, respectively.

DNA Reveals How German Cockroaches Came to Dominate the World

A new paper looks at the genes of the most common cockroach species, tracing its historical journey alongside humans, from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and beyond

Will Sullivan
Daily Correspondent

May 22, 2024 

German cockroaches took advantage of human globalization to spread all over the world. Schellhorn / ullstein bild via Getty Images


The German cockroach lives not in the wild, but in human buildings across the globe. The widespread species is the world’s most prevalent cockroach, but scientists have been unsure where it originally came from.

In a new study of German cockroach genetics published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers map the spread of the pest over the last couple millennia. As humans increasingly traveled between continents, cockroaches tagged along.

“The German cockroach can’t even fly,” Qian Tang, lead author of the study and an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, tells National Geographic’s Jason Bittel. “They hitchhike in human vessels around the world.”

As a result, tracing the history of the prolific pest is “not just an insect story,” as Stephen Richards, who studies insect genes at the Baylor College of Medicine and did not contribute to the findings, tells Adithi Ramakrishnan of the Associated Press (AP). “It’s an insect and humanity story.”

German cockroaches were first recorded in Europe around 250 years ago. Armies in eastern Europe discovered the bugs in their food stores during the Seven Years’ War between 1756 and 1763, the study authors write in the Conversation.

The armies each named the bug after their enemies—Russian soldiers on one side of the conflict called it the “Prussian cockroach,” while the British and Prussian forces dubbed it the “Russian cockroach.” Ultimately, the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus named the species Blattella germanica in 1767, after the specimens he happened to collect from Germany.

Historical records have indicated that German cockroaches spread from Europe between the late 19th and 20th centuries. But the species’ closest relatives are in Africa and Asia, not in Europe.

All this historical finger-pointing and conflicting information—along with the cockroach’s lack of natural habitat in the wild—has left scientists at a loss.

“Its origin has been a mystery,” Edward Vargo, a co-author of the study and urban entomologist at Texas A&M University, tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni.

To solve this puzzle of the cockroach’s beginnings, the researchers studied the genes of 281 German cockroaches from 17 different countries. First, they confirmed that the German cockroach evolved from the Asian cockroach Blattella asahinai around 2,100 years ago. This species looks similar to the German cockroach, but it can fly—and it is attracted to light rather than scuttling away from it.

The team suggests that, when humans cleared their natural habitat in India or Myanmar, the cockroaches adapted to live in human settlements, then evolved into a new species.

“We have long suspected that the Asian cockroach is actually the ancestor for the German cockroach, but this paper pretty much nails it,” Chow-Yang Lee, an urban entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved with the work, says to National Geographic. “It’s extremely exciting.”

The genomic analyses also indicated German cockroaches spread west to the Middle East around 1,200 years ago. They could travel in soldiers’ bread baskets, and the study authors suggest that commercial and military activities of the Islamic Umayyad or Abbasid Caliphates allowed the bugs to expand their territory. Later, around 390 years ago, the cockroaches spread east, likely due to European colonial commerce between South and Southeast Asia.

It wasn’t until just 270 years ago that the bugs entered Europe, according to the researchers’ estimates, and they spread to the rest of the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This timeline is supported by historical records.

As technological advancements allowed for speedier travel, cockroaches could spread across greater distances with global trade. Then, indoor heating and plumbing enabled their survival in colder areas.

Lee tells the New York Times’ Sofia Quaglia that the work is a “landmark study.”

Further genomic research could help scientists to better understand the cockroaches’ spread and the evolution of their resistance to insecticides, which could, in turn, lead to better pest management.

Cockroach infestations are “a big public health concern, especially in low-income housing where the treatments for German cockroaches leave a lot to be desired,” Vargo tells the Washington Post.



Will Sullivan is a science writer based in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in Inside Science and NOVA Next.

UK
North East NHS healthcare assistants begin five-day strike


By Michael Robinson

NHS workers launched their third round of strikes today (May 20) as they continue to protest against ‘unfair’ wages.

This is the latest action taken since their 24-hour strike in March and 72-hour stoppage in April.


The strike action will see staff continue to campaign to move to a wage band which “more accurately reflects” their work and secure a “fair” back pay settlement.

In an open letter, the union’s Northern regional secretary, Clare Williams, called on the trusts to negotiate with them.

She said: “UNISON is at a loss as to why the trust does not want to show it values staff by agreeing to meet UNISON to find a resolution to this dispute.

“UNISON members have shown they have been working above their grade for many years and quite reasonably are just asking to have this work recognised and for them to be treated with respect.“


A joint statement from the trusts on the latest strike action said: "The role healthcare assistants play on our wards and in the community is much valued by our colleagues and patients.

“We have worked closely with trade union colleagues to move our healthcare assistants to the higher grades where applicable in line with the national profile and have committed to back pay dating back tJuly 2021.


“Patients are asked to attend any appointments as usual, unless we contact them to reschedule.

“Urgent and emergency care will be prioritised to ensure those in life-threatening emergencies can receive the best possible care.

“People can help us to keep A&E free to treat the most serious conditions by accessing help from NHS 111 online for non-life-threatening medical issues.”

COLD WAR 2.0

Pentagon says Russia launched space weapon in path of US satellite


By AFP
May 22, 2024


Space has been a rare arena where Russia and the United States have maintained a degree of cooperation - Copyright ROSCOSMOS/AFP/File Handout

Russia has launched a likely space weapon and deployed it in the same orbit as a US government satellite, the Pentagon said.

“Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we assess is likely a counter-space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force Major General Pat Ryder told a press briefing late Tuesday.

The Russian “counter-space weapon” launched on May 16 was deployed “into the same orbit as a US government satellite,” he said.

Ryder added that Washington would continue to monitor the situation and was ready to protect its interests.

“We have a responsibility to be ready to protect and defend the domain, the space domain, and ensure continuous and uninterrupted support to the Joint and Combined Force,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked about reports that Moscow had launched a space weapon.

“I can’t comment on this in any way. We act absolutely in accordance with international law, do not violate anything, and have repeatedly advocated banning any weapons in space,” he told a regular press briefing in Moscow.

“Unfortunately, these initiatives of ours were rejected, including by the USA.”

Earlier Tuesday, Moscow accused the United States of seeking to weaponize space after Washington vetoed a Russian non-proliferation motion at the United Nations.

“They have once again demonstrated that their true priorities in the area of outer space are aimed not at keeping space free from weapons of any kind, but at placing weapons in space and turning it into an arena for military confrontation,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.



– Rival UN motions –



The world powers have traded accusations over weaponizing space in recent months.

They have proposed rival non-proliferation motions at the UN as part of the spat.

Russia vetoed the US initiative last month, while Moscow’s proposal was blocked by the United States, Britain and France on Monday.

US envoy Robert Wood said Russia’s proposal, which called on all countries to “take urgent measures to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space”, was a distraction and accused Moscow of “diplomatic gaslighting”.

He said that Russia’s “likely” counter-space weapon was “presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”.

“Russia deployed this new counter-space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite,” he said in remarks ahead of Monday’s vote.

“Russia’s May 16 launch follows prior Russian satellite launches likely of counter-space systems to low Earth orbit in 2019 and 2022.”

In February, the White House said Russia was developing an anti-satellite weapon, the existence of which was confirmed after lawmakers warned of an unspecified but serious threat to national security.

Space has been a rare area where the two countries have maintained a degree of cooperation despite a swathe of Western sanctions and dire relations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Both countries ferry each other’s crew members to and from the International Space Station (ISS), where their astronauts are jointly stationed.

The space weapon spat between Moscow and Washington resurrects the spectre of space being militarized despite the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which forbids countries from deploying “any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” into orbit or outer space.

burs-mtp/lb

US Commerce Department wants a million women in construction industry


A construction site near Battery Park City in New York that overlooks the Statue of Liberty is an example of construction sites that have more women working in construction and skilled-trades jobs after the Commerce Department launched its Million Women in Construction Community Pledge Tuesday. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI 

May 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce launched its Million Women in Construction Community Pledge Tuesday to encourage more construction companies to hire more women.

Federal investment is creating a construction boom across the country that is increases job opportunities for construction and trade workers, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an online announcement.

"Women make up less than 11% of jobs in construction and only 4% in skilled trades," Raimondo said.

"Many of these are good-paying, quality jobs you can get without a college degree," Raimondo said. "Women deserve equal opportunity for these jobs."

She said an "industrywide commitment" is needed to achieve the goal of putting a million women to work in construction and skilled-trades positions on construction sites.

"I'm calling on everyone -- contractors, labor unions [and] trade organizations -- to join our community pledge to ... overcome barriers faced by women and underserved communities in construction and the trades," Raimondo said.

Representatives of seven of the nation's largest construction firms have signed on to the pledge.

Those entities are Baker Construction, Gilbane Building Co., McKissack & McKissack, Mortenson, Power Design, Suffolk and Shawmut Design and Construction.

The initiative comes as the number of women employed in the construction industry is among the highest with 1.3 million working in various positions.

About 40% of women employed in the construction industry work in management or office positions while 2% work in production, transportation or materials movement.

About half of female construction workers have children under age 18, including about 22% with children younger than age 6.

Stellantis CEO: electric vehicle tariffs are a trap

By Joseph White and Christoph Steitz

May 22, 2024

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares poses in front of the Ram 1500 Revolution electric concept pickup truck during a Stellantis keynote address at CES 2023, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Steve Marcus Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Summary

Companies

Tavares: European auto sector is in Darwinian period

Tavares: Chinese OEMs have 30% cost edge

Chinese OEMs on track to take 10% market share in Europe

Brussels set to decide in June on provisional tariffs

MUNICH, May 22 (Reuters) - Stellantis (STLAM.MI), opens new tab expects a major battle with Chinese rivals in the European market for electric vehicles, warning of significant consequences for jobs and production as a result, the group's Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said on Wednesday.

The comments in an interview with Reuters are among the CEO's most strongly worded yet as tensions among Beijing, Brussels and Washington over EV trade grow. The EU is expected to decide next month on whether to follow the U.S. in imposing additional tariffs on Chinese carmakers.

U.S. officials said Wednesday they plan to hit Chinese made EVs and EV materials with duties up to 100% by Aug. 1.
Tavares said tariffs on Chinese vehicles imported to Europe and the United States are "a major trap for the countries that go on that path" and will not allow Western automakers to avoid restructuring to meet the challenge from lower cost Chinese manufacturers.
The European Commission will unveil an initial decision on potential tariffs on Chinese EV imports on June 5. China has been threatening counter tariffs.

"When you fight against the competition to absorb 30% of cost competitiveness edge in favour of the Chinese, there are social consequences. But the governments, the governments of Europe, they don't want to face that reality right now," Tavares said.
Tavares said that tariffs would only fuel inflation in the regions where they are imposed, potentially impacting sales and production.
"We are not talking about a Darwinian period, we are in it," Tavares said at a Reuters Events Automotive Europe conference in Munich, adding the price battle with Asian rivals would be "very tough". bout twice the size of the Netherlands, where I live.

"This is not going to be easy for the dealers. It's not going to be easy for the suppliers. It's not going to be easy for the OEMs. As we know in Europe, everybody is talking about change as long as change is for somebody else."
Italy's nationalist government has been pressing Stellantis to commit to building 1 million vehicles a year in the country, up from 750,000 last year. Tavares did not respond specifically to a question about Italy's demand, but outlined the overcapacity looming over the European auto sector.

Chinese automakers are already on track to sell 1.5 million vehicles in Europe, equivalent to a 10% market share and up to 10 assembly plants worth of production, Tavares said.
"If we let the share of the Chinese OEMs grow ... then it's obvious that you are going to create an overcapacity, unless you fight against that competition," Tavares said.
Tavares said Stellantis is in "very rewarding discussions" with labour unions at its European operations: "Most of the time they agree with us in terms of what is the risk that we are facing and how we should go through that period."

Stellantis last week announced it would start selling EVs of its Leapmotor (9863.HK), opens new tab Chinese partner outside China during this year, starting form Europe in September.

The Stellantis-Leapmotor joint venture, the first one between a Western and a Chinese carmaker designed to sell and produce EVs from a Chinese manufacturer outside China, will help the Franco-Italian group expand its global offerings of budget vehicles.
"We will try to be Chinese ourselves, which means instead of being purely defensive vis-à-vis the Chinese offensive, we want to be part of the Chinese offensive," Tavares said.

Actors union backs Scarlett Johansson after claim of voice misuse by Sam Altman’s OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has since clarified that the voice belongs to a different professional actress and has removed it from the company's products.


Pranav Dixit

Updated May 22, 2024

Scarlett Johansson

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has voiced its support for actress Scarlett Johansson following her concerns over the use of a voice in OpenAI’s new GPT-4o system. Johansson claimed the voice, belonging to a persona named "Sky", bore a striking resemblance to her own, despite her previous refusal to participate in the project.

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'I was shocked, angered and in disbelief': Scarlett Johansson accuses OpenAI of using AI voice 'eerily similar to hers'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has since clarified that the voice belongs to a different professional actress and has removed it from the company's products. However, the incident has ignited a larger conversation about the rights of actors in the age of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence.

"We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of crucial importance to all SAG-AFTRA members," a spokesperson for the union stated. "We share in her concerns and fully support her right to have clarity and transparency regarding the voice used.”

SAG-AFTRA, which represents approximately 160,000 entertainment and media professionals worldwide, played a pivotal role in recent negotiations with Hollywood studios, securing better pay and increased protections for actors against the unauthorised use of their likenesses through AI.

This recent dispute underscores the growing concerns surrounding the use of AI in entertainment. As technology advances and computer-generated images and sounds become increasingly realistic, the line between human performance and AI replication continues to blur. This raises critical questions about ownership, consent, and compensation for artists.

SAG-AFTRA has affirmed its commitment to protecting its members' rights, stating that it is "strongly championing federal legislation that would protect their voices and likenesses." The union plans to continue engaging with OpenAI and other industry stakeholders to establish clear guidelines and safeguards for performers.