CALL IT DEPARTMENT FOR EMPLOYERS

Trump Labor Department says it may actively defend meatpacking companies over workers in Covid-19 lawsuits

 April 29, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

“We have a president forcing hazardous meat plants to reopen, threatening workers’ health. We have a Labor Department siding with corporations over workers’ safety. Disgusting.”

The stated mission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to protect workers, but the agency is signaling that it may actively defend meatpacking corporations against workplace safety lawsuits filed by employees who contract Covid-19 on the job if the companies show they made a “good faith” effort to comply with federal health guidelines.

“We all need to stop for a second to think about how crazy this is. OSHA is the agency that is supposed to protect people at work. Under this administration, it is now deciding it will defend bad employers in court because the employer ‘tried.'”
—Nate Ring, labor attorney

In a statement Tuesday shortly after President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to keep meat processing plants open amid the coronavirus pandemic, Solicitor of Labor Kate O’Scannlain and OSHA principal deputy secretary Loren Sweatt urged meatpacking employers to comply with the agency’s non-binding safety guidelines.

But O’Scannlain and Sweatt said companies will have leeway to flout standards that they determine are not “feasible in the context of specific plants and circumstances,” provided that they “document why that is the case.”

“Where a meat, pork, or poultry processing employer operating pursuant to the president’s invocation of the DPA has demonstrated good faith attempts to comply with the Joint Meat Processing Guidance and is sued for alleged workplace exposures,” said O’Scannlain and Sweatt, “the Department of Labor will consider a request to participate in that litigation in support of the employer’s compliance program.”

We all need to stop for a second to think about how crazy this is. #OSHA is the agency that is supposed to protect people at work. Under this Administration, it is incredibly understaffed and is now deciding it will defend bad employers in court because the employer “tried.” https://t.co/72weCeuUuP— Nate Ring (@NVUnionLawyer) April 29, 2020

Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary at OSHA, said Wednesday that the Labor Department’s statement constitutes “a free pass to meat and poultry processors.”

In an interview on MSNBC Tuesday night, former OSHA senior policy adviser Debbie Berkowitz slammed her former agency for abdicating its responsibility to safeguard workers.

“The agency has essentially abandoned its responsibility to ensure that employers keep workers safe from Covid-19.”
—Debbie Berkowitz, National Employment Law Project

“OSHA… has chosen—this is a choice—not to enforce any requirements in the meat industry to protect workers,” said Berkowitz, who is currently the director of the worker health and safety program at the National Employment Law Project. “The [meatpacking] industry looked at these recommendations—they’re voluntary—and in the end didn’t implement them.”

“There’s a real price to pay for this kind of, I would call it government malfeasance,” Berkowitz added.

Meatpacking plants across the country have become coronavirus hot spots in April. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), the largest meatpacking union in the U.S., said in a statement Tuesday that at least 20 meatpacking workers have died of Covid-19 and more than 5,000 “have been hospitalized or are showing symptoms.”

“The reality is that these workers are putting their lives on the line every day to keep our country fed during this deadly outbreak,” said UFCW president Marc Perrone. “For the sake of all our families, we must prioritize the safety and security of these workers.”

Critics warned that Trump’s executive order mandating meatpacking plants remain open amid the pandemic could lead to another surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths among workers in the industry. According to the Washington Post, at least 20 meatpacking plants have closed in recent weeks due to coronavirus outbreaks at the facilities.

“We have a president forcing hazardous meat plants to reopen, threatening workers’ health,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Wednesday. We have a Labor Department siding with corporations over workers’ safety. Disgusting.”

“Maybe this is too ‘radical,'” Sanders added, “but we need a White House that protects public health during a pandemic.”

We have a president forcing hazardous meat plants to reopen, threatening workers’ health.

We have a Labor Department siding with corporations over workers’ safety.

Disgusting. Maybe this is too “radical,” but we need a White House that protects public health during a pandemic. https://t.co/g3DnKcETqf
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 29, 2020

Between January and early April, OSHA was flooded with thousands of worker complaints accusing employers of violating federal coronavirus guidelines and endangering employee safety by failing to provide adequate protective equipment.

But the agency, overseen by Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, has thus far refused to use its authority to force employers to comply with Covid-19 safety guidelines. OSHA is also massively understaffed with vacancies at 42% of its top career leadership positions, including such crucial spots as director of enforcement and director of whistleblower protection.

“OSHA’s mission to protect workers in the most dangerous jobs has been seriously compromised under the Trump administration,” Berkowitz said in a statement Tuesday. “The agency has essentially abandoned its responsibility to ensure that employers keep workers safe from Covid-19.”

TOPSY TURVEY TRUMP WORLD
Trump appointees at Consumer Protection Agency manipulated data to benefit Trump-donating payday lenders says ex-staffer


April 29, 2020 By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement


Trump appointees at federal consumer watchdog agency manipulated data to benefit the very rich and powerful payday lending industry, a former staffer who worked at the agency for seven years as an economist says. Payday lending is a $40 – $90 billion industry that has donated heavily to Donald Trump. Multiple reports detail the millions of dollars the industry has showered on President Trump and the GOP.

“Last summer, on his final day of work at the nation’s consumer finance watchdog agency, a career economist sent colleagues a blunt memo” The New York Times reports. “He claimed that President Trump’s appointees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had manipulated the agency’s research process to justify altering a 2017 rule that would have sharply curtailed high-interest payday loans.”

In his 14-page memo the economist, Jonathan Lanning, accused Trump loyalists installed in the agency of engaging in maneuvers, The Times says, “that he considered legally risky and scientifically indefensible, including pressuring staff economists to water down their findings on payday loans and use statistical gimmicks to downplay the harm consumers would suffer if the payday restrictions were repealed.”

The Times notes Trump’s efforts “to dismantle the payday regulation began with the arrival of Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration budget chief, who was appointed the C.F.P.B.’s acting director in late 2017. Among his priorities was to delay, and eventually undo, the Obama-era payday lending restrictions, which were scheduled to take effect in summer 2019, according to two former senior bureau officials who discussed the issue with him.”

A 2018 International Business Times article, “Trump And Lawmakers Got Cash From Payday Lenders, Then Weakened Lending Rules,” explained what some might say sounds like a quid pro quo process.

“Less than two months after President Donald Trump tapped his budget director to run the independent federal agency tasked with protecting U.S. consumers from harmful and predatory financial practices, the agency has moved to undo a rule intended to prevent payday lenders from preying on low-income Americans,” IBT reported.

Since 2015, “payday lenders have given $1.5 million to congressional lawmakers and another $300,000 to the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The industry also spent another $6.2 million on politics at the state level to combat regulation over the same time period,” IBT added.

“The industry’s shrewdest investment may have been the money it delivered to Trump after he won the 2016 election. While payday lenders weren’t lining up to support Trump during the presidential election, in January after Trump’s win, Advance America, the nation’s biggest payday lender, donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration. Title loan magnate Rod Aycox and his wife each donated $500,000 for the event; payday lender Checks into Cash chipped in another $25,000. In November, the Community Financial Services Association of America, the industry’s trade group, announced its annual conference and expo would be held at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami.”

An in a damning observation, IBT added: “As that money flowed to Trump and his business empire, the Trump administration has made moves to help the industry — in particular, it took decisive action to undermine the CFPB’s previous efforts to regulate lenders.

The New York Times notes, “This week, the agency is expected to release the revised payday rule, which will no longer require lenders to assess whether customers can afford their fees before offering a loan.”

Read the full New York Times article here.

‘A sniveling sycophant’: Conservative columnist disgusted by Mike Pence’s lack of character

April 29, 2020 By Sky Palma


Writing in The Washington Post this Wednesday, columnist Jennifer Rubin contends that the contrast between America’s political parties “is so vast that one could imagine collapse of the two-party system until an adequate substitute for the Republican Party could be crafted.” According to Rubin, that contrast was on “horrifying display” this Tuesday.

On the one hand, there was Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of Joe Biden for 2020, followed by a discussion where the two tackled disproportionate impact coronavirus has had on the U.S. population and a “friendly reminiscing of their time in the Obama administration reminded us of a time when graceful, decent and cordial people populated government.”

On the other hand, Republicans and Trump “displayed some of the worst of the worst behavior.” Specifically, there was Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Mayo Clinic where he refused to wear a face mask.


“Why would Pence act so recklessly, putting himself and caregivers in further danger?” Rubin writes. “Well, Trump does not like the idea of wearing a mask so a sniveling sycophant probably wouldn’t want to be seen in one, either. It is difficult to fathom someone so weak in character as to endanger others because of his boss’s vanity.”

Read her full op-ed over at The Washington Post.

Reduced pollution during Covid-19 lockdown could prevent 11,300 premature deaths in Europe: study

FILE PHOTO: General view of Rialto Bridge and the empty Grand Canal, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Venice, Italy, April 28, 2020. R © Manuel Silvestri/File Photo, Reuters
Text by:NEWS WIRES

Improved air quality in Europe due to lockdowns to combat the coronavirus pandemic has delivered health benefits equivalent to avoiding 11,300 premature deaths, according to a study published on Thursday.

Researchers extrapolated the likely impact on diseases caused or made worse by air pollution, which has fallen dramatically as hundreds of millions of people have stayed at home over the past month.

"You could compare it to everyone in Europe stopping smoking for a month," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which conducted the study.

"Our analysis highlights the tremendous benefits for public health and quality of life that could be achieved by rapidly reducing fossil fuels in a sustained and sustainable way."

The benefits in Germany, Britain and Italy exceeded the equivalent of more than 1,500 premature deaths in each country.

The average European citizen was exposed to nitrogen dioxide levels 37% below what would normally have been expected in the 30 days that ended on April 24, CREA said. The gas is mostly produced from road transport.

Exposure to particulate matter, generated by transport, industry and coal-fired heating, was 12% below normal levels, according to the study, which covered 21 European countries.

The observed drop in pollution would also be expected to result in 1.3 million fewer days of absence from work and 6,000 fewer new cases of asthma in children, CREA said.

At the same time, the researchers noted that prolonged exposure to dirty air prior to the pandemic could have caused or exacerbated diabetes, lung disease, heart disease and cancer – all conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 patients.

"What we can say so far is that there is an overlap between conditions associated with air pollution and those that have increased the risk of dying from COVID-19," said Sara De Matteis, a professor at Italy's Cagliari University and a member of the European Respiratory Society's environmental health committee.

Air pollution causes more than 400,000 annual premature deaths in the 27-member European Union and ex-member Britain, according to the EU environment agency.

(REUTERS)

Less air pollution means thousands fewer die

An unintended boon of shuttered factories along with empty roads and skies has been more breathable air JACQUES DEMARTHON AFP/File30/04/2020 - 

Paris (AFP)

European countries under coronavirus lockdown have seen 11,000 fewer deaths in April compared to the same period last year due to a sharp drop in fossil fuel pollution, according to research released Friday.

Measures to halt the spread of coronavirus have slowed the region's economies to a crawl, with coal-generated power falling by nearly 40 percent, and oil consumption by a third.

Globally, oil use has declined by about the same amount, with drops in coal consumption varying by region.

An unintended boon of shuttered factories and empty roads has been more breathable air.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and small particle pollution known as PM2.5 -- both toxic by-products burning coal, oil and gas -- fell 37 and 10 percent, respectively, according to the findings.

"The impacts are the same or bigger in many other parts of the world," lead author Lauri Myllyvirta, senior analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), told AFP.

In China, for example, NO2 and PM2.5 levels declined by a 25 and 40 percent during the most stringent period of lockdown, with an even sharper fall in Hubei Province, where the global pandemic began.

"So we are looking at an even larger number of avoided deaths," Myllyvirta said.

Air pollution shortens lives worldwide by nearly three years on average, and causes 8.8 million premature deaths annually, according to a study last month.

The World Health Organization (WHO) calculates 4.2 million deaths, but has underestimated the impact on cardiovascular disease, recent research has shown.

Worst-hit is Asia, where average lifespan is cut 4.1 years in China, 3.9 years in India, and 3.8 years in Pakistan.

In Europe, life expectancy is shortened by eight months.

"Our analysis highlights tremendous benefits for public health and quality of life that could be achieved by rapidly reducing fossil fuels in a sustained and sustainable way," Myllyvirta said.

- Pollution and COVID-19 -

The happenstance evidence that less air pollution saves lives should guide governments deciding on how to reboot their economies, noted Maria Neira, the WHO's director for Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.

"When we eventually take off our face masks, we want to keep breathing clean air," she said, commenting on the findings.

"If we truly care about the health of our communities, countries and global commons, we must find ways of powering the planet with out relying on fossil fuels."

Compared to other causes of premature death, air pollution worldwide kills 19 times more people each year than malaria, nine times more than HIV/AIDS, and three times more than alcohol.

Another study comparing more than 3,000 US counties, meanwhile, found that PM 2.5 pollution is directly linked with higher COVID-19 death rates.

One extra micron per cubic metre corresponded to a 15 percent jump in COVID-19 mortality, researchers at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health reported earlier this month.

The results "suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution increases vulnerability to experiencing the most severe Covid-19 outcomes," they wrote.

PM 2.5 particles penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing cardiovascular respiratory problems.

In 2013, the WHO classified it as a cancer-causing agent.

In India's Uttar Pradesh -- home to 200 million -- small particle pollution by itself slashes life expectancy by 8.5 years, while in China's Hebei Province (population 74 million) the shortfall is nearly six years, according to the Air Quality Life Index, developed by researchers at the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago.

All but two percent of China's cities exceeded WHO guidelines for PM2.5 levels, while 53 percent exceeded less stringent national safety limits.

The UN says PM2.5 density should not top 25 microgrammes per cubic metre (25 mcg/m3) of air in any 24-hour period. China has set the bar at 35 mcg/m3.

The new analysis from CREA matches weather conditions and changes in emissions to data on the damages to health linked to exposure to air pollution.

© 2020 AFP

Women on the front line (2/3): Cashiers face 'warlike' conditions working under Covid-19

Supermarket cashiers are more than ever on the frontline as France enters its 7th week in lockdown. © Pascal Guyot, AFP
Text by:Camille PAUVAREL

Issued on: 29/04/2020 - 

With the Covid-19 pandemic and most French workers being asked to stay at home, supermarket cashiers are more than ever on the front lines as France enters its seventh week in lockdown. The profession, which is 90 percent female, has proven to be essential. But what price do they pay for being behind the till?

Since the beginning of the lockdown, it is estimated that some 25 percent of French workers are heading into their workplace, according to a survey for France Info. Véronique, 55, is one of them. A supermarket cashier for almost 20 years, she does not plan to stay at home while there is work: "We have a knot in our stomach but we go in regardless.”

In her store in the small town of Carqueiranne in south-eastern France, she explains that protective equipment has been brought in but not everything is usable.

"We tried the peaked masks but they are painful, then there’s the issue of fogging -- if you have glasses, you see nothing,” she told FRANCE 24.

Improvisation and disparity

Since the start of the lockdown, recommended hygiene rules have been applied differently across retail stores.

For example, plexiglass windows installed to protect cashiers do not always encircle their cash register, despite cashiers having the most contact with customers. As for gloves, they are optional, their use being disputed by scientists. It is the same for ensuring how many shoppers come through the door at the same time, with the number varying from one shop to another.

Amid conflicting messages as to what are the best protective measures against the virus, it is not surprising that workers are confused.

"We wear a mask but we keep it for several days,” Veronique said. When asked when she last changed her mask, she replied with a laugh: "I couldn't even tell you."

This lack of coherence has outraged union representatives. "We asked them to standardise protective measures, but some large companies tell us that each manager is entitled to do as he or she wishes in their store," said Sylvie Vachoux, the federal secretary representing the retail sector for the CGT union.

On March 18, the secretary general of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, declared companies were not abiding by the rules, referring to the lack of equipment but also flexibility for mothers who were required to stay at home because of school closures without fear of losing their jobs.

In any case, the risk of contracting Covid-19 continues to exist for retail workers. On March 27, a 52-year-old cashier from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis died from the virus. Since lockdown came into effect on March 17, “the cashiers have been on the front line without protection, just like being in a trench during a war without ammunition", said Vachoux.

'We sometimes see the same customer four times a day'

Leïla, a cashier at a hypermarket in Nice, told FRANCE 24 that there were large numbers of customers coming to shop each day. "I see some customers coming in the morning to buy fruit, returning in the early afternoon to get some cheese and then come back to buy vegetables and pasta in the evening," she said.

They are making unnecessary purchases, the 43-year-old cashier explained: “We keep telling them that we get deliveries every day and there would be no shortages if they did not buy so much. I wonder where they are storing all of that food.”

According to the market research firm Nielsen, the retail sector saw a massive increase of 237 percent in sales on March 16, the day before France went into lockdown.

The stress surrounding the pandemic has meant cashiers find themselves often dealing with rude customers. "People are so stressed, it's very, very hard," Véronique said.

She spoke about what happened to one of her colleagues. "A customer arrived and refused to put his purchases on the counter, objecting that he did not want them to be contaminated. My colleague replied that she cleans it often, as she uses it all day long. In return, the guy said ‘Well, you’re going to get it anyway."

Despite the stress and fear of contamination, Veronique works almost every day, putting in at least 43 hours a week.

This article has been translated from the original in French by Annette Young.

Hazardous material: Dealing with the vast medical waste of the Covid-19 pandemic

A discarded face mask on a street in of Douala, Cameroon, on April 24, 2020. © AFP / FRANCE 24
Text by:Sam BALL|
Video by:Sam BALL
Issued on: 29/04/2020

Across the world authorities have been scrambling to supply health workers with equipment needed to treat the surge of Covid-19 patients. But a new problem is emerging: How to deal with the vast amounts of medical waste the pandemic is creating, including the masks, gloves, gowns and other protective gear used by doctors and nurses, all of which could be contaminated by the virus.

One processing plant in Vandoeuvre-lés-Nancy in eastern France has had to double its capacity to cope with the influx of infectious waste.

"We had to implement a number of important measures, such as almost doubling our mechanical treatment capacity, doubling our teams in place in order to ensure all the treatment. And also, working seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” Joël Keller, director of treatment at the plant, told AFP.

Once delivered from hospitals across the country the waste is incinerated at temperatures of 1100°C.

But not all medical waste is treated so carefully.

Photos published by news agency Reuters earlier this month appeared to show medical workers at a New York hospital disposing of equipment in a public bin on a street, moments after transferring bodies to a refrigerated truck.

It is not just hospitals using vast amounts of protective equipment. Public demand for face masks and disposable gloves has also skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic.

In the city of Douala in Cameroon, one of the countries to have made the wearing of face masks in public compulsory, residents say discarded masks are now becoming a health hazard.

"As you're walking, if you walk down the whole street, frankly, you're going to see one or two masks on the ground, and there are some people who take these masks and just put them straight on. And that's not good,” Douala resident Martin Penda told AFP.

“The government really needs to find the means and strategies to deal with this."

NOVEAU THIRD WORLD
US becomes first country to record one million cases of Covid-19 as economy tanks

Issued on: 29/04/2020

A healthcare worker is seen outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center, during the outbreak of coronavirus disease in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, USA, April 28, 2020. © Brendan McDermid, REUTERS
Text by:FRANCE 24Follow

The United States on Tuesday recorded its one millionth Covid-19 case, as the country’s economy shrank at a 4.8 percent annual rate last quarter, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down much of the country, triggering a recession that will end the longest expansion on record.

Excitement over partial easing of the lockdowns affecting more than half of humanity has been tempered by fear of new outbreaks and growing evidence of the economic devastation wreaked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US – where millions of jobs have gone – reached another grim milestone as it registered 58,351 deaths, a larger loss of life than recorded by the US military in the Vietnam War.

The overall US case load rose to 1,011,877 in a public health disaster that could threaten President Donald Trump's re-election chances.

For a president who was banking on a strong economy to bolster his chances of re-election, it was the sharpest fall since the economy shrank at an 8.4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008 in the depths of the Great Recession.

The drop in the January-March quarter will be only a precursor of a far grimmer GDP report to come on the current April-June period, with business shutdowns and layoffs striking with devastating force. With much of the economy paralysed, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that GDP will plunge this quarter at a 40 percent annual rate.

That would be, by a breathtaking margin, the bleakest quarter since such records were first compiled in 1947.

‘Risky’ return to normal
But other countries have reported falling infection numbers and governments have begun to chart their way out of the shutdowns.

France said Tuesday that shops, markets and selected schools could reopen next month, with face masks required on public transport and work-from-home orders staying in place for several more weeks.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe admitted even a gradual return to normal life was "risky", conceding that the French government’s plans are predicated on the idea that “we will have to live with the virus”.

Spain said restrictions would be slowly lifted over the next two months, while Italians will be able to exercise outdoors and visit relatives from next week – but only if they wear masks and refrain from hugs and handshakes.

Italy, Spain and France have been the worst affected countries in Europe, with each reporting more than 23,000 deaths.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin warned that the peak of coronavirus infections still lay ahead, saying "the situation remains very difficult".

But he nonetheless said lockdown measures could be eased from next month.

Data on infection rates has shown mixed results in Germany, which is being closely watched after allowing some shops to reopen last week.

"We all need to take care that we don't end up with more infections," said Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

'The cries of the people'

Experts have warned of a second wave of contagion if restrictions are lifted too hastily, and the World Health Organization has said reinfection may be possible even among recovered patients.

Counter-intuitively, prolonged lockdowns will help the economy over the long run as well as saving lives. A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published on March 31 found that in the last pandemic to take the world by storm, the 1918-19 Spanish flu, US cities where lockdowns and social distancing lasted longest “performed better” economically after the disease had run its course.

In Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, bus driver Taju Olonade told AFP a decision to ease the lockdown showed that authorities had finally listened "to the cries of the people".

"For almost one month I have not earned a penny," he said. "I hope life will soon return to normal."

The new coronavirus has killed at least 214,451 people since the outbreak first emerged in China in December, according to a tally compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Tuesday.

More than three million cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories, although the official tally is widely thought to lag far behind the actual figures.

The United States, which on Tuesday recorded a further 2,207 deaths in 24 hours, has seen by far the highest number of fatalities.

Trump has increasingly sought to blame China, but China pushed back fiercely on Tuesday, accusing US politicians of "barefaced lies".

"They have only one objective: shirk their responsibility for their own poor epidemic prevention and control measures," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.

Beijing and Washington have clashed repeatedly over the outbreak.

It seems to be under control in China with no new deaths reported for 13 straight days and the death toll standing at 4,633 – although much doubt has been cast on whether the numbers are accurate.

Shattered economies

Anger at the global economic paralysis has intensified in recent weeks and anti-government protesters took to the streets in Lebanon on Tuesday in defiance of a lockdown.

"I came down to raise my voice against hunger, poverty and rising prices," Khaled, 41, told AFP, saying he had lost his job selling motorcycle parts and could no longer support his three children.

In the latest sign of big business woes, British Airways is set to slash up to 12,000 jobs, its parent company said. The carrier, which has approximately 45,000 employees, has already furloughed nearly 23,000 staff.

Despite other European countries moving towards reopening schools and shops, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was too early for the UK to follow suit.

That was in contrast to New Zealand, where people enjoyed fast food and coffee shop treats for the first time in five weeks after the country lifted its strict lockdown.

"We see the difference in other countries and I don't envy them, that's for sure," said Wellington resident Cheryl Robertson, who planned to celebrate her newfound freedom with a curry.

In Australia, hundreds of surfers and swimmers rushed back to the waves at Bondi Beach in Sydney, five weeks after police closed the area because of large crowds flouting social distancing rules.

"I've been excited for like a week," Diane Delaurens told AFP, dripping after an early-morning surf.

However, there is not yet a vaccine for the disease and Britain issued a warning of coronavirus-related syndrome emerging in children – including abdominal pain and inflammation around the heart.

"What I would also stress is that it is rare. Although it is very significant for those children who do get it, the number of cases is small," said Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

In Tokyo, organisers said that the postponed 2020 Olympics will have to be cancelled next year if the pandemic isn't brought under control.

In Latin America, Brazil emerged as a new hotspot with 5,000 deaths so far – more than China's – and nine inmates were killed when rioting broke out at a prison in Lima, Peru after two inmates died from Covid-19.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

Special programme: Brazil torn between lockdown and denial over Covid-19

By:Fanny LOTHAIRE|Louise RAULAIS|Anna KAISER|Stéphanie CHEVAL29/04/2020 

We bring you a special edition of Inside the Americas from Brazil, which on April 28 crossed the symbolic and tragic threshold of 5,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic. There, lockdown has become highly political and has angered supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro. Latin America as a whole is severely affected by Covid-19 and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning that the pandemic may lead to increased hunger and poverty


Our reports:

Searching for a test affordable to all. The Brazilian health ministry has promised to distribute more than 46 million coronavirus tests, but so far only two and a half million have been delivered. Laura Damase, Fanny Lothaire and Louise Raulais report.

We also meet epidemiologist Gulnar Azevedo, who tells us about the consequences of the pandemic for the most vulnerable, especially those living in favelas.

>> Out of control? Covid-19 in Bolsonaro's Brazil


Guayaquil, Ecuador's worst-affected city. Although Brazil has the highest number of cases in Latin America, Ecuador holds the sad record for the highest number of deaths per inhabitant. We report on the situation in Guayaquil, the economic capital of Ecuador, where the desperate situation exposes the failings in the government's handling of the health crisis.


Daily news briefReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe

>> Port city in Ecuador struggles to cope with coronavirus toll

Mexico's indigenous people shut themselves off from the world. In Mexico, as a protective measure, some villages have decided to shut themselves off from the world, indigenous communities being particularly vulnerable to imported viruses like Covid-19. Our correspondents Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report.

>> Mexico declares health emergency as confirmed coronavirus cases top 1,000

ISRAEL THE FIFTY FIRST STATE
Biden says he'll keep US embassy in Jerusalem if elected

MEET THE NEW BOSS SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Issued on: 30/04/2020

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden -- seen here in Jerusalem in 2016 -- said if elected, his administration would continue to work for a two-state solution in the Middle East -- but that he would leave the US embassy in Jerusalem DEBBIE HILL POOL/AFP/File
Washington (AFP)

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would keep the US embassy in Israel in Jerusalem if elected -- even though he disagrees with Donald Trump's controversial 2017 decision to move it out of Tel Aviv.

The former vice president said the embassy should never have been moved without that decision being part of a wider Middle East peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

"But now that it's done, I would not move the embassy back to Tel Aviv," Biden told a virtual fundraising event.


The location of the US embassy is a hot-button issue: the status of Jerusalem is one of the most hotly contested issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel seized control of the east of the city in 1967 and later annexed it in moves never recognized by the international community.

Israel considers the city its undivided capital, but Palestinians believe the east is illegally occupied and see it as the capital of their future state.

Trump shattered the status quo when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and announced his decision to shift the US embassy to the holy city in December 2017.

He has repeatedly boasted that he is the most pro-Israeli US president in history, and has slashed aid to the Palestinians while making big concessions to the Israelis.

Biden said he would reopen the consulate in Jerusalem "to engage the Palestinians and my administration will urge both sides to take steps to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive."

In January this year, Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner unveiled his Middle East peace plan.

It proposes the establishment of a Palestinian capital in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem, and gives consent for the annexation of Israeli settlements as well as the Jordan Valley -- Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Palestinians -- backed by the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union -- have rejected the plan.

Biden, who during his time as vice president had an uneasy relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has said previously that "we can't be afraid to tell the truth to our closest friends."

"The two-state solution is the best, if not the only, way to secure a peaceful future for a Jewish, democratic state of Israel," he said in October last year.

© 2020 AFP

Tectonic plates reverse their movement before major earthquakes

Researchers have discovered an interesting similarity in two of the largest recent earthquakes in Japan and Chile: a strange large-scale ground movement back and forth in the months leading up to the quake.


These earthquakes are among the 10 strongest ever measured: the 2011 Tohoku-oki seaquake off the coast of Japan registered 9.0 on the moment magnitude scale, triggering the devastating tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. It was the fourth-strongest quake in the last 100 years. The 2010 seaquake off the coast of the Maule region of Chile, occupies sixth place on the list.

Researchers from the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam (GFZ) along with collaborators from Chile and the United States have now discovered astonishing similarities in the months before both quakes: multiple strange reversals of ground motion — an extremely slow "wobbling" of the continental plate, so to speak.

Lead author, geophysicist Jonathan Bedford, along with a team of geodesists, geologists and seismologists, evaluated the movements of ground stations of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

The massive tsunami after the severe quake in Japan took everything with it and cost thousands of lives

These ground stations continuously track the distances to multiple GNSS satellites that orbit the earth in elliptical orbits. After these distances have been established, and given the estimates of the satellite positions, geodesists are able to define the motion of points on the Earth within a terrestrial reference frame.

In Japan, there is a very dense network of ground stations. Although the network in Chile was not as dense in 2010, it was sufficient to obtain the data.

Read more: Moving hotspots: Scientists explain mystery bend in Hawaii-Emperor volcano chain

Whole continental plate 'wobbles'

Bedford and his colleagues analyzed how the ground stations in Japan and Chile had moved in the five years before the two quakes. They noticed that the motion of the continental plate on which the stations are located had been reversed several times in the last five months before the quake (in the case of Japan) and seven months (in the case of Chile). The researchers published their results in the scientific journal Nature.

Both plate boundaries are subduction zones. Subduction is the process of one plate diving under another. In both study regions, the oceanic plates are subducting underneath the continental plates and meet at a place called the trench, which for both cases is submerged under the ocean. Normally, the continental plate is pressed by the oceanic plate and thus pushed away from the trench. However, the geophysicists have now discovered that this movement was first reversed in the direction of the trench, then away from the trench, then back towards the trench again.

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Same movement over thousands of kilometers

They call this phenomenon "wobbling," due to its appearance in the GNSS time series. The amplitude of this movement is not particularly great — it was only between 4 and 8 millimeters — but Bedford points out that this is significant compared to the relative plate motion that can be a few centimeters per year. Furthermore, the spatial extent of the signal extended thousands of kilometers along the plate boundaries.

"It is a common assumption that deeper subduction proceeds at a fairly constant speed in between large earthquakes," says Bedford. "Our study shows that this assumption is an oversimplification. In fact, its variability might be a key factor in understanding how the largest earthquakes nucleate."

With global satellite tracking now becoming better and better, and with accurate data available for the first time in decades, earthquake researchers have an ever-increasing ability to make such observations.

"We can now trace movements back decades," says Bedford. "In the next stage, we'd like to monitor the changes in near real time."


Despite all the research, a short-term earthquake warning is not yet possible

Not suitable as an early warning system

Until now, seismologists have been more able to say where large earthquakes are likely to occur — less able to say when. By simply calculating the magnitude of the last large earthquake in a region and knowing the average relative plate velocity, one can estimate when that fault will be mature enough to sustain a repeat event, although there are great uncertainties in this approach. This is because sometimes a fault will rupture only over a smaller area (e.g. with a "large" magnitude 8 event) and other times it will rupture over many magnitude 8 regions all at once (e.g. in a "mega" magnitude 9 event).

Could an observed untypical plate movement therefore give us a better warning of an imminent earthquake? Not really.

"It would not be wise for a geophysicist to issue such a warning," is Bedford's sobering answer. "The observed signals of this study are not necessarily precursory movements of a major quake."

More research is necessary and as a matter of principle, people in known earthquake areas should not let their guard down.

"The general public should always be prepared," Bedford warns.