Hungarian teachers say new school curriculum pushes nationalist ideology

NATIONALISM IS FASCISM BY ANY OTHER NAME
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A Hungarian teachers’ union on Tuesday protested against a new school curriculum it says is designed by the ruling Fidesz party to promote its nationalist agenda and curb academic freedoms.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the leader of Fidesz, has often come under fire from the European Union and human rights groups for a range of policies they say harm democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.

In the education field, Orban has restricted the freedom of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and forced the Central European University to leave the country.

The Ministry of Human Resources announced the National Fundamental Curriculum (NAT) on Friday, specifying in detail the required material for study in elementary and secondary schools.

The Democratic Union of Teachers (PDSZ) called for protests against the changes, now cast in law.

“It is problematic when an educational framework is based on ideology rather than professional principles,” PDSZ said in a statement on its website. “It should be withdrawn.”

Teachers of history and literature issued separate statements complaining that the NAT favors nationalist authors and agendas.


For instance, the NAT names among what it considers the 10 most important Hungarian authors Ferenc Herczeg, who was an ardent supporter of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

It contains no mention of Hungary’s only Nobel-winning author, Imre Kertesz, who was honored in 2002 for his body of work on the human experience during the Holocaust.

“This curriculum expects a constant declaration of moral, ideological views,” wrote Gyorgy Fenyo, deputy director of the Association of Literature Teachers. “It leaves no freedom for thought but dictates what (we are meant to) think.”

“It... can only serve as a curriculum of a dictatorship,” he added.

Asked about the union’s criticism, a government spokesman said: “Hungary’s best experts prepared NAT after lengthy professional discussions.”

The human resources minister said on Monday Hungary had needed to update its school curriculum.

“Future generations can begin their lives leaning on a curriculum based on values and showing European, Hungarian values,” Miklos Kasler told state television.

Teachers protesting began to post photos on social media with the #noNAT hashtag and slogans such as “I will not teach fascism”.

German court rules medieval anti-Semitic sculpture can stay on church


A thirteenth century anti-Semitic sculpture is displayed at St. Marien church in Wittenberg, Germany, January 24, 2020. A court is expected to rule on a motion seeking the removal of the 700-year-old sculpture known as “Judensau” or Jew pig. It is one of around 20 such relics from the Middle Ages that still feature on churches across Germany and elsewhere in Europe. A sign underneath the plaque urges people to think about the anti-Semitism that prevailed at the time it was made. Picture taken January 24, 2020. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court on Tuesday ruled a 700-year-old anti-Semitic sculpture could stay on the exterior of a church in the city of Wittenberg, dismissing a claim by a member of the local Jewish community that it was defamatory and should be removed.
The court case comes amid a national debate in Germany about rising anti-Jewish hate, after an anti-Semitic gunman killed two people near a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle last year.

The “Judensau,” or “Jew pig”, on a wall of Wittenberg’s St Mary’s church is a reminder of widespread anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages. It depicts a rabbi lifting the tail of a sow and peeping at its behind, while Jewish children suckle on the animal.

Pigs are considered unclean in Judaism, which forbids both their rearing as well as pork consumption.

The Higher Regional Court in Naumburg ruled that displaying the “Judensau”, which is 4 meters from the ground did not constitute an offence.

“The sculpture in its current context has neither an insulting character, nor does it violate the plaintiff’s personal rights,” the judgment said.

Sigmount A. Koenigsberg of Berlin’s Jewish community said: “We don’t want this ‘Judensau’ to disappear. It should be on public display but not on the side of a church. It belongs in a museum alongside clear historical context about anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages.”

St. Mary’s Church said in a statement, that it acknowledged with sadness, that there were those who would feel hurt and offended by the sculpture. But it added that in 1988, in consultation with the Jewish community, it had created a site of remembrance incorporating the “Judensau”, a plaque on the ground beneath remembering the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and an information board.

The court said the information board clearly stated that the parish “distanced itself from the persecution of Jews, the anti-Judaic writings of Martin Luther and the mocking aim of the defamatory sculpture”.

It was the second time in two years that a court has ruled against the removal of Wittenberg’s “Judensau”, one of about two dozen such sculptures from the Middle Ages that still feature on churches in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

The German government is trying to tame an alarming rise in anti-Semitism with stricter laws against hate speech online, tougher gun ownership rules and increased campaigns to raise awareness.

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Bombardier in talks to sell business-jet unit to Textron: WSJ
(Reuters) - Canada’s Bombardier Inc is in talks to sell its business-jet unit to U.S. maker of Cessna jets, Textron Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move will help the struggling Canadian train and plane maker to pare billions of dollars in debt, the report said.

Bombardier’s shares have plunged more than 30% so far this year. On Jan. 16, company flagged a 2019 profit warning, citing problematic rail contracts, as well as warned of a potential write down in the value of a plane partnership with Europe’s planemaker Airbus.

Bombardier declined comment on the WSJ report, but a source familiar with the company’s thinking told Reuters it was holding talks over both rail and aviation assets to keep all its options open.

Acquiring Bombardier’s business jet unit would add the Global series of large-cabin aircraft to Textron’s portfolio, which mostly makes small- and medium-sized corporate planes.

Analysts have said that a deal would expand the U.S. company’s aircraft offerings, allowing it to offer a complete family of jets to a wider range of customers.


Textron declined to comment.

Shares of Textron rose more than 9%, while those of Bombardier’s were up over 10%.

Bolivian political camps struck as election race begins

FILE PHOTO: Bolivia's former President Evo Morales delivers a speech during a celebration of Bolivia's Plurinational State Foundation Day, in Buenos Aires, Argentina January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Mariana Greif

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia’s 2020 presidential election will be contested by eight candidates who registered by a Monday deadline to compete in the re-run of a fraught October ballot that sparked protests and led to the downfall of long-term leftist leader Evo Morales.

The May 3 election will see a fair share of controversy with caretaker President Jeanine Anez running despite criticism that she is overstepping her interim mandate, while Morales is eyeing a return from exile in Argentina to be candidate in the senate.

Conservative Anez, a former senator, will go head-to-head with a number of recent allies, including civic leader Luis Fernando Camacho, former President Jorge Tuto Quiroga and October runner-up Carlos Mesa.

They form a fragmented opposition against Morales’ own Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, which has former Economy Minister Luis Arce at the top of the ticket.

Anez, who took over in a political vacuum after the resignation of Morales and a number of his deputies in November, sparked a backlash from allies and opponents alike when she announced plans to run last month.

Morales is directing his party’s campaign from Argentina. MAS leads in recent polls against the divided opposition, but not by enough to avoid a second round run-off.

The country’s electoral tribunal still needs to formally rubber stamp the candidates as eligible to run, leaving a question mark over whether Morales will be allowed to be a candidate for the senate despite residing overseas.

The landlocked South American nation, which is grappling with economic slowdown, was plunged into political crisis last year over allegations of electoral fraud after Morales won an election handing him a fourth term in defiance of term limits.

Reporting by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Richard Chang
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

U.S. deploys 'more survivable' submarine-launched low-yield nuclear weapon

THERE IS NO SUCH A THING AS A MORE SURVIVABLE NUCLEAR WEAPON

OR A SURVIVABLE NUCLEAR WAR
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department said on Tuesday the Navy had fielded a low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead, something the Pentagon believes is needed to deter adversaries like Russia but which critics say lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Low-yield nuclear weapons, while still devastating, have a strength of less than 20 kilotons. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, in August 1945, had about the same explosive power.

“This supplemental capability strengthens deterrence and provides the United States a prompt, more survivable low-yield strategic weapon,” John Rood, the under secretary of defense for policy, said in a statement.

“(It) supports our commitment to extended deterrence; and demonstrates to potential adversaries that there is no advantage to limited nuclear employment because the United States can credibly and decisively respond to any threat scenario,” Rood added.

A 2018 Pentagon document called for the military to expand its low-yield nuclear capability, saying the United States would modify a small number of submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads with low-yield options.

“The administration’s decision to deploy the W76-2 warhead remains a misguided and dangerous one. The deployment of this warhead does nothing to make Americans safer,” Democratic Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

Arms control advocates and some lawmakers have argued that such low-yield weapons reduce the threshold for potentially using nuclear weapons and could make a nuclear conflict more likely. The United States already has air-launched, low-yield nuclear weapons and critics say that should be sufficient.

“President Trump now has a more usable nuclear weapon that is a dangerous ---30---- in search of a problem,” said Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Association advocacy group.

The argument for these weapons is that larger nuclear bombs are so catastrophic that they would never be used, meaning they are not an effective deterrent. With less power and destruction, the low-yield option would potentially be more likely to be used, serving as an effective deterrent, military officials have said.

The Federation of American Scientists said last week that the Navy was scheduled to deploy the low-yield warhead on the USS Tennessee in the Atlantic Ocean.

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U.S. government experts, industry spar over asbestos testing in talc
SILVER SPRING, Md. (Reuters) - For the first time in nearly 50 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration examined asbestos testing for talc powders and cosmetics at a hearing on Tuesday, after traces of the known carcinogen were found in several such products, including Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder.

Citing those FDA findings, some U.S. lawmakers and consumer advocates have called for stricter safety regulations to protect public health.

J&J, the market leader in talc powders, has defended the safety of its talc. The company said tests by labs it hired found no asbestos in samples from the same bottle the FDA examined - except for some the company attributed to contamination from a laboratory air conditioner.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company said it looks forward to the FDA’s “thorough review of the most effective and reliable ways to test for asbestos in cosmetic talc.”

The hearing on asbestos testing in talc, the FDA’s first since 1971, focused on testing standards recommended by a panel of government experts. The recommendations, published last month, embrace positions held by public health authorities and experts for plaintiffs who in lawsuits allege that contaminated talc products caused their cancers.

An industry trade group criticized the recommendations, saying they would not improve product safety.

For decades, the cosmetic talc industry has largely been allowed to police itself with little FDA oversight. Although talc and asbestos are similar minerals often found together in the ground, the FDA has never required manufacturers to test for the carcinogen.

One of the most significant recommendations from the expert panel is that mineral particles found in talc products small enough to be drawn into the lungs, even those the industry would not technically categorize as asbestos, should be counted as potentially harmful.

In its report, the panel said both asbestos and look-alike minerals are suspected of causing “similar pathological outcomes,” so the “distinction is irrelevant.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, a government toxicologist said a wide range of spear-shaped mineral particles - including but not limited to asbestos - can trigger the development of cancer and should be part of any new testing regime.

‘THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE’

Christopher Weis, a senior advisor with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said research has shown that conventional testing methods have failed to detect the full range of hazardous fibers, known as elongated mineral particles, or EMPs.

The process of milling talc for powders and cosmetics is known to break down any contaminants into small EMPs.

“All EMPs have the ability to trigger” development of cancer and other diseases, Weis said at the FDA hearing. “Short EMPs are not conventionally counted or included in lab reports. As a toxicologist, this is unacceptable.”

Mark Pollak, chief operating officer for the Personal Care Products Council, said the recommendation for counting more mineral particles as potentially harmful is not supported by science. The cosmetics trade group represents about 600 companies.

“Counting all (elongated mineral particles) would provide misleading reports, suggesting the presence of asbestos when none exists,” Pollak said at the hearing. “The key to effective testing is identification of asbestos, not harmless minerals.”

Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, urged the FDA to endorse the more rigorous testing methods and said the agency should add a warning label to talc products so consumers are aware they may contain asbestos.

“It’s time to end the honor system which has failed consumers for so long,” Faber said at the hearing. “Let’s not wait another 50 years to finally protect consumers.”



The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have limited exposure to asbestos on the job and in the air to reduce cancers since the 1970s, when the hazard was well established. A Reuters report in December (here) showed that, during the same period, the FDA downplayed health concerns, including possible asbestos contamination, in talc powders and cosmetics and repeatedly deferred manufacturers.

Dr. Linda Katz, director of FDA’s office of cosmetics and colors, said the panel of government experts from FDA and other agencies will continue studying these issues and plans to publish a white paper at some point. The FDA has not announced a timetable for deciding whether it will pursue new rules on testing.

The increased scrutiny on this issue follows a 2018 Reuters report (here) which showed that although J&J knew for decades its raw talc and powders sometimes tested positive for asbestos, the company did not report those findings to the FDA.

Boeing will not cancel CEO incentive award tied to 737 MAX return

BLOOD MONEY FOR 345 HUMAN LIVES SACRIFICED BY BOEING'S 737 MAX

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) told U.S. lawmakers it will not cancel an incentive award for its new chief executive tied to the return of its grounded 737 MAX despite criticism from Congress, according to a letter made public on Tuesday.

David Calhoun, who took over as Boeing chief executive last month, is receiving a $1.4 million annual salary and is eligible for long-term compensation of about $26.5 million, including a $7 million bonus if he achieves several milestones. The milestones include the return to service of the 737 MAX which was grounded in March 2019 after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.


Boeing defended the award and noted it is subject to a new clawback policy that applies to misconduct that compromises the safety of Boeing products. It also said Calhoun must serve for multiple years to receive the award.

“We believe tying our new CEO’s incentive-based compensation to key strategic objectives, including the safe return to service of the 737 MAX, is in the best interest of our company, our workforce, and the flying public,” Boeing government operations executive vice president Tim Keating wrote in a Jan. 23 letter to the lawmakers.

Democratic U.S. Senators Edward Markey, Richard Blumenthal and Tammy Baldwin said in a statement on Tuesday that Boeing’s response was “completely inadequate.” They added that if the planemaker “really wants to prove it has learned its lesson about prioritizing safety over profit, then it will cancel the proposed bonus immediately and make sure there is no financial incentive for its new CEO to rush the 737 MAX back into the sky.”

Boeing rejected the suggestion that it is rushing the MAX back into service, reiterating in its letter that its best estimate is that the MAX will not be ungrounded until mid-2020 and that regulators will determine the timing.

CRIMINAL CAPITALISM
Exclusive: iPhone app makers questioned in U.S. antitrust probe of Apple - sources
ANTITRUST IS ANTI PRICE FIXING

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has reached out to app developers as part of its investigation into Apple Inc (AAPL.O), one of the four big tech companies being probed for alleged anti-competitive behavior, according one of the developers and another person familiar with the investigation.

The chief executive of developer Mobicip, Suren Ramasubbu, told Reuters he was interviewed in November by a U.S. investigator who asked about the company’s interactions with Apple. The app, which has nearly a million users worldwide, allows parents to control what their children see on their iPhones.

Ramasubbu said the Mobicip app was temporarily removed from the iPhone app store last year for a failure to meet requirements imposed by Apple.

A source familiar with the Justice Department’s investigation said a handful of app developers had been contacted in what is the first indication of what officials are pursuing involving Apple since the investigation was revealed by Reuters in June.


U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized Apple’s Silicon Valley neighbors for other reasons, calling for closer scrutiny of social media companies and Google and accusing them of suppressing conservative voices online, without presenting any evidence.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in December that he hoped to have the Justice Department investigations into the big tech platforms - Facebook Inc (FB.O), Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Apple - wrapped up this year.

Apple declined comment, but pointed to a statement on its website that says its app store was designed to hold apps “to a high standard for privacy, security and content.”

“Since 2016, we have removed over 1.4 million apps from the App Store because they have not been updated or don’t work on our most current operating systems,” the site says.


Apple’s ability to do just that has been a point of contention in the courtroom. The company was accused in lawsuits last year of abusing its clout in the app market. In one case, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead last May to an antitrust lawsuit that accused Apple of forcing consumers to overpay for iPhone software applications.
SCREEN TIME CONTROL

Apple introduced its Screen Time app, which includes parental controls, in June 2018. At the start of 2019, Ramasubbu told Reuters, his company was contacted by Apple and warned that Mobicip’s app violated the iPhone-maker’s rules relating to technical elements that had previously been acceptable.

The app was removed from the app store for about six months, during which time it was updated to be compliant with Apple rules, Ramasubbu said. It was reinstated in October 2019, but he estimates his company’s business has shrunk by half.

Six executives of parental control app companies interviewed by Reuters said they had a comfortable relationship with Apple until mid-2018. That is when Apple introduced its own, similar software giving parents oversight of their children’s phone screen time and searches.


Apple has said that it had been concerned about parental control apps using technology which gave developers access to sensitive data, and that they declined to approve apps that used the technology if they did not also commit to not sharing data on children.

As the arbiter of who is allowed to sell in the app store, Apple says it has the power to ensure that only the highest quality apps are sold there.

But some developers say it also allows Apple to push out apps that compete with its own products, thus strengthening its profits at a time with its device sales have stagnated and it is seeking new sources of revenue.

British boardrooms doing too little to end 'all-white domains', study find

CAPITALISM IS WHITE MALE PRIVILEGELONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s top companies are making too little progress in hiring people of color to top jobs and end “all-white domains” in many boardrooms, a government-backed report said on Wednesday.



FILE PHOTO - Workers are seen in an office tower in the Canary Wharf financial district at dusk in London, Britain, November 17, 2017. Picture taken November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

The report, an updated version of a 2017 study that set deadlines for companies to improve boardroom ethnicity, gave a damning verdict of progress so far.

Britain’s top 100 companies were set an end-2021 to have at least one person of color as a director. The next tier of 250 companies was given until 2024.

The latest report, again led by John Parker, used data from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) watchdog that polices corporate governance in Britain and noted how all the companies had fared in efforts to meet the targets.

Parker said that close to a majority of boards at the top 100 companies remain “all-white domains” and that hopes of reaching the target look “some way off course”.

“However, our report suggests that whilst we may not yet be up to speed, it could still be possible to complete our journey in time,” Parker said.

Only eight companies account for nearly a quarter of directors of color, with only 15 of those directors at chairman or chief executive level across the top 350 companies, the report said.

FRC Chief Executive Jon Thompson said it was unacceptable that talented people are being excluded from succession and leadership simply because companies are failing to put appropriate policies in place.

“We will monitor closely how companies report on their policies or explain their lack of progress in this area,” he said.

The FRC’s corporate governance code was strengthened in 2018 to promote boardroom diversity in gender and in social and ethnic backgrounds.


Companies that sign up to the code are required to set out in annual reports a ---30 of their policy on diversity, including any measurable targets that have been set.

The FRC said that more than half of Britain’s top 100 listed companies provided little elaboration in their policy beyond some acknowledgement of the value of board diversity.

Only 21 specified ethnicity in director succession planning, the FRC said.

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Draft U.N. resolution condemns Israeli annexation in Trump peace plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Tuesday condemned an Israeli plan to annex its settlements in the West Bank in a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel peace proposal.

The draft text, circulated to council members by Tunisia and Indonesia, would seemingly face a U.S. veto, but nonetheless offered some members’ dim view of the peace plan that Trump rolled out last week with great fanfare.

Diplomats said negotiations on the text would likely begin later this week. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to speak to the council next week about the plan, possibly coinciding with a vote on the draft resolution.

The resolution “stresses the illegality of the annexation of any part” of occupied Palestinian territories and “condemns recent statements calling for annexation by Israel” of these territories, according to the draft seen by Reuters.


Trump’s plan, the product of three years effort by senior adviser Jared Kushner, would recognize Israel’s authority over the settlements and would require the Palestinians to meet a highly difficult series of conditions to be allowed to have a state, with its capital in a West Bank village east of Jerusalem.

Kushner is due to brief Security Council ambassadors on the plan on Thursday.

While the Palestinians have rejected the plan, a number of Arab governments have said it represents a starting point for a renewal of long-stalled negotiations.


The resolution stresses the need for an acceleration of international and regional efforts to launch “credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process without exception.”

A U.S. veto at the council level would allow the Palestinians to take the draft text to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, where a vote would publicly show how Trump’s peace plan has been received internationally.