It is abhorrent that big pharma is profiting from a vaccine when so many are dying from coronavirus

Sat, 21 November 2020

Will ‘vaccine nationalism’ become a problem?(Getty/iStock)

Millions are dying from Covid-19. It is abhorrent that pharmaceutical companies seem to be competing with each other to produce vaccines in order to be first and make fortunes for their directors and shareholders out of this crisis, while governments fight over who receives the vaccine.

Governments should be collaborating with each other and the pharmaceuticals to ensure that a viable vaccine can be produced and made available to every nation at a fair and low price, which of course covers the costs of research, production and distribution.

This is not a business but a world emergency, which is having incalculable consequences for every nation and its population.

Peter Fieldman
Madrid

Moderna to charge $25-$37 for COVID-19 vaccine - CEO tells paper


Sat, 21 November 2020

MODERNA ANNOUNCES A VACCINE AGAINST COVID-19 EFFECTIVE AT 94.5%

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Moderna will charge governments between $25 and $37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered, Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS).

"Our vaccine therefore costs about the same as a flu shot, which is between $10 and $50," he was quoted as saying.

On Monday, an EU official involved in the talks said the European Commission wanted to reach a deal with Moderna for the supply of millions of doses of its vaccine candidate for a price below $25 per dose.

"Nothing is signed yet, but we're close to a deal with the EU Commission. We want to deliver to Europe and are in constructive talks," Bancel told WamS, adding it was just a "matter of days" until a contract would be ready.

Moderna has said its experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second developer to report results that far exceeded expectations after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.

The EU has been in talks with Moderna for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine at least since July.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Potter)

UK

Independent Sage scientists to join climate crisis battle

 Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage)

Robin McKie Observer Science Editor
Sat, 21 November 2020

Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images

It began in the summer when a group of scientists decided to give the government a short, sharp lesson on how to use scientific advice in a transparent manner when tackling Covid-19. Once they had done that, the men and women of the Independent Sage organisation intended to disband.

But now the group, led by former government chief scientist Sir David King, is considering a move six months after its formation that would allow Independent Sage to fight on for years to come – but with an expanded agenda. This time it is considering a plan to hold ministers to account over a range of issues, including the UK’s attempts to tackle the climate crisis.

“I never envisaged Independent Sage lasting longer than three months,” said King. “We have all got other full-time jobs and this is a stressful business, but it is clear that we need to go for a lot longer. First with Covid, but in the longer term with other issues including climate change, which is the greatest threat to humanity, after all.”

In the middle of last spring and summer’s first wave of Covid cases, scientists like King were alarmed because the advice and membership of the government’s official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) were not being published. “So when ministers said they were merely following the advice of scientists we had no way of judging whether or not they were,” said King.

This is no longer true – Sage advice and membership is now made public – though this has not stopped Independent Sage from continuing its own analyses and attacking government policies. For example, the group has become highly critical of ministerial failures over the test, trace and isolate system.

“It isn’t good enough to test to people and then trace their contacts. You also have to isolate properly,” said King. “That is not happening in the UK. In cities like Birmingham, where lots of people live in multigenerational families, we are tracing Covid contacts and are then sending them back to those homes – to spread the disease through the whole family.”

Instead, Britain should have followed countries like Greece where hotels were requisitioned and Covid contacts allowed to isolate properly, King added. “That halted the spread there, but we did not isolate properly and so we have not contained the spread.”

King and the other senior scientists have been accused of undermining the established process that is involved in providing scientific advice to politicians. The group is unrepentant, however, and is now considering ways to continue its fight in other parts of British policy, including the nation’s new bid to become a major power in the battle against the climate crisis. Membership of Independent Sage’s new groups would change and include leading scientists in various fields, including climate science.

For the moment, King has welcomed Boris Johnson’s 10-point climate plan, announced last week, which promised to ban combustion engine sales by 2030, quadruple offshore wind power, boost hydrogen production to replace natural gas and invest £525m in new nuclear power.

Related: Pressure grows on Boris Johnson over UK carbon emissions plan

However, King added that the country would need to be sure that clear scientific advice was used to determine the ways in which we disinvested from the fossil-fuel industry in favour of carbon-free technologies. “This is needed to reverse the established risk of rising sea levels globally over the coming decades which is already threatening to be civilisation’s biggest tragedy,” he said.

The blunders that afflicted Britain’s attempts to deal with Covid must not be repeated, added King. Hence the decision by Independent Sage to track new challenges, including Britain’s response to the climate crisis. Other areas of concern could be added.

King has a fairly strong record over climate issues, though he was criticised over one issue when in government: his initial acceptance that pollution from diesel vehicles could be controlled. “I had not anticipated that car manufacturers, starting with VW, would cheat the EU testing system,” he said. “Diesel became popular, emissions in cities rose dangerously and VW were heavily fined for this deception by US courts.”

The major problem facing the UK today, said King, was that Boris Johnson seems to be stuck in a mode of constant electioneering. “He is not trying to get the trust of the public but he really needs to do that. You cannot afford to be caught telling porkies.”

Secret UN report reveals fears of long and bitter war in Ethiopia

Jason Burke The Guardian Sat, 21 November 2020
Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Ethiopian national forces are meeting heavy resistance and face a protracted “war of attrition” in the northern region of Tigray, a confidential United Nations assessment reveals.

Though officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, have repeatedly claimed that key towns have been secured, paramilitaries and militia deployed by the army are still struggling to clear and secure territory. Heavily armed regular troops have continued to advance into Tigray as they rush to reach the capital, Mekelle, the assessment says.

The UN document and more than a dozen interviews with aid workers from other international organisations give the most comprehensive overview so far of the fighting, and will deepen international concerns that the two-week-old conflict threatens to become a long and brutal battle, destabilising one of Africa’s most fragile regions.

Information has been difficult to obtain and confirm with communications cut to Tigray and journalists banned. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people have been killed so far and many more have been displaced. More than 36,000 have fled into neighbouring Sudan, and large numbers are on the move within Tigray to avoid the fighting.

Prime minister Abiy Ahmed pledged to end the era of dominance by Tigray when he came to power. Photograph: Reuters

Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister, said early last week that the Ethiopian Defence Forces (EDF) were poised to make a “final push” to secure Mekelle and oust the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party in the region. Last Thursday, government spokesman Redwan Hussein told reporters that national forces were “moving forward and closing in on Mekelle” and that a number of towns had fallen.

The UN assessment, interviews and other international aid organisation analyses all suggest any expectation of a rapid and decisive victory is optimistic, and that resistance is likely to stiffen as Tigray troops fall back into mountains east of Mekelle.

“Although Tigray regional forces may have initially been backfooted by the EDF’s swift advances, the terrain in eastern Tigray is easier to defend… and if they make a stand, they have the capability to stall the EDF advance,” one analysis reads, warning that this will then “change the dimension of the conflict from one of rapid movement into one of attrition”.Ethiopia graphic

Documents seen by the Observer report continuing combat in areas which Addis Ababa claims are now controlled by government forces, though their authors admit information is hard to verify.

“After the EDF have reportedly ‘taken’ key towns such as Humera, Dansha, Shiraro, Alamata and Shire, and then pushed on with their advance, fighting has continued to be reported, or has subsequently erupted again in these locations,” one reliable account said.

The documents describe well-trained and heavily armed frontline units from the Ethiopian army bypassing main towns to avoid costly urban fighting as they hurry towards Mekelle. But the militia and paramilitaries deployed in their wake are neither as well-equipped nor as disciplined and so are vulnerable to counter-attack.

One assessment predicted that if Ethiopian forces continue to advance, their supply lines and rear areas will become more vulnerable to guerilla attacks and casualties will mount.

The conflict in north-west Ethiopia is the culmination of months of rising tensions between the TPLF and the ruling coalition in Addis Ababa. When national elections were cancelled because of the pandemic, the TPLF held polls anyway, in a move that aggravated tensions.

Abiy, who is Africa’s youngest leader and won the Nobel peace prize last year, launched his operation after accusing the TPLF of attacking a military camp and trying to seize military hardware.

Soldiers near the border of the Tigray and Amhara regions. Photograph: AP

The African Union said last Friday that it would send a team of mediators to Ethiopia in a bid to resolve the dispute, but few observers see much immediate prospect for peace.

The US ambassador to Ethiopia, Michael Raynor, said recent conversations with Abiy and with Debretsion Gebremichael, the hardline TPLF leader, had convinced him there was “a strong commitment on both sides to see the military conflict through”.

In a statement this week, the TPLF said hardships are part of life in wartime and promised to give Ethiopian troops “hell”on its home turf.

The reports seen by the Observer depict a complex and dynamic conflict across much of Tigray, with major clashes in the west of the region – as Ethiopian forces sought to advance towards the strategic town of Humera – and in the south-west, along the main road to Mekelle. Heavy fighting has also been reported around the town of Alamata, six miles from the border with neighbouring Amhara province which is fiercely loyal to the central government.

Ethiopian planes have launched air strikes, and Tigrayans have fired missiles into Amhara and Eritrea, which has supported the offensive to remove the TPLF. At least one massacre has been reported: it has been blamed on retreating Tigrayan militia targeting a community seen as loyal to the central government, but there is no confirmation of this.

There are concerns that even if Abiy achieves his aim of forcing out the TPLF and imposing federal authority on Tigray, violence will continue.

Though they number only 6 million out of a total 110 million people living in Africa’s second most populous country, Tigrayans effectively ruled Ethiopia for decades. Until Abiy took power two years ago, they were the strongest force in a multi-ethnic coalition. Abiy, whose parents are from the larger Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, freed thousands of political prisoners and pledged to end domination by one ethnic group.

“Even if the EDF are successful in their mission to take Mekelle,” the UN assessment warns, “this will not necessarily end the conflict. It is likely that a protracted asymmetric conflict and insurgency would continue. From a humanitarian perspective, the longer the conflict is drawn out, the more severe the crisis will become.”

Ethiopia has long been a linchpin of US policy in the fragile east African region and so far Washington has supported Abiy.

Tibor Nagy, US assistant secretary for African affairs, told reporters last week: “This is not two sovereign states fighting. This is a faction of the government running a region that has decided to undertake hostilities against the central government, and it has not … had the effect they thought they were going to get.”

On Saturday, Abiy said on Twitter that the safety and wellbeing of the people of Tigray was of paramount importance and the federal government would do everything to “ensure stability prevails in the Tigray region and that our citizens are free from harm and want”.

Thousands attack Brazil supermarket amid violent protests after black man beaten to death by security guard


Reuters
Sat, 21 November 2020

Demonstrators make a barrier out of car tyres as they take part in a protest inside the supermarket Carrefour - AFP

More than 1,000 demonstrators attacked a Carrefour Brasil supermarket in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre on Friday after security guards beat to death a Black man at the store.

The killing, which has sparked protests across Brazil, occurred late on Thursday when a store employee called security after the man threatened to attack her, cable news channel GloboNews said, citing the Rio Grande do Sul state military police.

Amateur footage of the fatal beating and tributes to the Black victim were published on social media. He was identified in local media by his father as 40-year-old Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas.

News website G1 later reported that an initial analysis by the state forensics institute indicated the cause of death could be asphyxiation.

In a statement on Friday, the local unit of France's Carrefour SA said it deeply regretted what it called a brutal death and said it immediately took steps to ensure those responsible were legally punished.

It said it would terminate the contract with the security firm, fire the employee in charge of the store at the time of the incident, and close the store as a mark of respect.

Products burn at a supermarket Carrefour in Sao Paulo, Brazil - AFP

Demonstrators march in Sao Paulo during the National Black Consciousness Day - REUTERS

In a series of tweets in Portuguese on Friday night, the Chairman and CEO of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, said that the images posted on social media were "unbearable."

"Internal measures have immediately been implemented by the Carrefour Brazil, notably towards the security company involved. These measures do not go far enough. My values, and the values of Carrefour do not allow for racism and violence," Bompard said.

He called for a complete review of employee and sub-contractors' training on security, diversity and tolerance values.

"I have asked the teams of Carrefour Brazil to fully cooperate with judicial authorities to get to the bottom of this odious action," he addded

In Porto Alegre, protesters on Friday afternoon handed out stickers depicting the Carrefour logo stained with blood and called for a boycott of the chain. They held up a banner in Portuguese reading "Black Lives Matter" and signs calling for justice for Beto, a nickname for the victim.

A demonstrator damages a storefront - REUTERS

A man cries during a protest at a Carrefour supermarket after the death of Alberto Silveira Freitas - Shutterstock

The protest turned violent on Friday evening as the demonstrators smashed windows and delivery vehicles in the supermarket's parking area. A Reuters witness saw police firing teargas at the protesters.

In Sao Paulo, dozens of protesters smashed the front windows of a Carrefour store with rocks, pulled off the front doors and stormed the building, spilling products into the aisles before dispersing. In Rio de Janeiro, roughly 200 shouting protesters gathered outside of another Carrefour store location.

November 20 is honored in many parts of Brazil as Black Awareness Day. Brazilians like to think of their country as a harmonious 'racial democracy' and far-right President Jair Bolsonaro denies the presence of racism. But the influence of slavery, abolished in 1899, is still evident.

Black Brazilians are almost three times as likely to be victims of homicide, according to 2019 government data.

"The culture of hate and racism needs to be combated at its source and the full weight of the law should be used to punish those that promote hate and racism," Rodrigo Maia, the speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, wrote in a tweet.

AFP UK

Protests sweep Brazil after black man beaten to death by supermarket security  VIDEO

Sat, 21 November 2020

The death of a black man after being beaten by white security guards at a supermarket has sparked protests across Brazil as the country celebrated Black Consciousness Day. The military police in Rio Grande do Sul state said the man had threatened a female worker at the supermarket, who called security. The victim, named as 40-year-old welder Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, lost consciousness during the assault and died on the spot as medics tried to revive him.

Thousands join annual Taiwan protest, anger focused on U.S. pork

Sun, 22 November 2020

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Thousands of people thronged Taipei's streets on Sunday for the annual "Autumn Struggle" protest march organised by labour groups, with much of the anger focused on the government's decision to ease restrictions on imports of U.S. pork.

Taiwan's main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) rallied its supporters to join in the march for the first time, having mounted an increasingly strident campaign against the pork move, which it says threatens food safety.

President Tsai Ing-wen announced in August that the government would from Jan. 1 allow in U.S. pork containing ractopamine, an additive that enhances leanness but which is banned in the European Union and China, as well as U.S. beef more than 30 months old.

While welcomed in Washington, and removing a roadblock to a long sought after U.S. free trade deal for Taiwan, the KMT has strongly opposed the decision, tapping into public concern about food safety after several high profile scandals in recent years.

KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang, elected in March to help turn around party fortunes following a trouncing in January's presidential and parliament elections, called on Tsai to have a televised debate with him about the issue.

"Taiwanese pigs don't eat ractopamine, and yet you are asking Taiwanese people to? Does this make sense?" he told supporters.

There was no immediate reaction from the presidential office.

Tsai's government and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has a large majority in parliament, says the decision brings the island into line with international norms, is not a safety threat and will boost Taiwan-U.S. ties.

The DPP, which had previously strongly objected to ractopamine, has accused the KMT of spreading fake news about the subject trying to sow public fear.

The KMT is also trying to organise a referendum on the U.S. pork imports for next year.

The pork is due to start arriving from Jan. 1.

(Reporting by Ann Wang; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

Michiganders Erupt After Their Maskless Lawmakers Sip Dom Perignon At Trump Hotel

Mary Papenfuss
·Trends Reporter, HuffPost
Sat, 21 November 2020, 

After appearing to acquit themselves rationally after a controversial White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday, Michigan’s lawmakers were photographed celebrating maskless and downing pricey Dom Perignon champagne in the Trump International Hotel.

Voters erupted, and “Dom Perignon” was quickly trending on Twitter. The bottles go for $500 to $950 each at the hotel, and if it was a treat from Trump, they were likely on an expense account paid for by taxpayers — state, or federal.

Michigan, meanwhile, suffered through 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 Friday — and 53 deaths.

Photos of Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, state Rep. Jim Lilly and other Republicans surfaced on social media, where the men were lashed for their extravagant indulgence and extraordinary callous indifference as their constituents struggle with health and financial hardships.

Chatfield and Republican Senate Majority Mike Shirkey were summoned to Washington by Trump who, observers suspected, talked to them about using their power to sway the state’s electoral votes his way, regardless of Michigan’s vote backing Joe Biden.

The two legislators issued a joint statement after the meeting that they saw no problems with Michigan’s election and intended to proceed with the “normal,” legal process expected to confirm Biden as president-elect.

But then Dom-gate broke, which triggered worries about what was really going on between the president and the lawmakers. Trump also mysteriously tweeted on Saturday that the Michigan legislators’ statement “was true but that wasn’t the way it was reported in the media.”

Voters’ fears about possible continuing plots were heightened Saturday when the Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox asked the state’s Board of State Canvassers in a letter to delay certification of the state’s election results for two weeks. That would “allow for a full audit and investigation” into alleged voting “anomalies and irregularities,” the letter stated.

Neither Chatfield nor Shirkey have yet responded to the uproar, and could not immediately be reached by HuffPost to comment. Shirkey refused to answer reporters’ questions when he landed back in Michigan Saturday. He sang a hymm, ignoring queries about who paid for his trip.

Close your eyes and try to imagine the reaction if someone photographed Gov. Whitmer in a Washington DC hotel bar, with a $500 bottle of Dom Pérignon, without a mask, on the day Michigan had nearly 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 53 deaths.
— Zack Pohl (@ZackPohl) November 21, 2020

Now further imagine if the bottle of Dom Perignon (actually $795 at trump's gouging hotel) was a gift from Joe Biden, after meeting with him to discuss suppressing the votes of Republicans.
— Egalitarian ✨ #Biden/Harris 2020 (@oregonvirginia) November 21, 2020

Three questions for @LeeChatfield and @SenMikeShirkey:
1. Who funded the Dom Pérignon fueled vacation while Michigan reported almost 10k new cases of COVID-19?
— Michigan Democrats (@MichiganDems) November 21, 2020

2. After Donald Trump outed you for lying about your meeting, will you apologize to Michigan voters for scheming to silence their voices?
— Michigan Democrats (@MichiganDems) November 21, 2020

Two different Americas.
LEFT: Americans on food lines in Texas.
RIGHT: Michigan legislators at Trump Hotel drinking Dom Perignon pic.twitter.com/cSVoU5WyAY
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) November 21, 2020

People in #Michigan are getting sick and dying at record rates from #COVID19, the legislature isn't doing anything about it, and our reps are drinking Dom Perignon at Trump hotel in DC after meeting with @realDonaldTrump. Truly disgusting. https://t.co/iapw9mW2t9
— Dr. Rob Davidson #WearAMask (@DrRobDavidson) November 21, 2020

This is just a complete lack of leadership and a complete disconnect with the people of Michigan and the nation. This is also politically dumb...during a pandemic and economic hardship a good politician, while in the public eye, would at least act as though they care...
— Dave Robbins (@DavidDRobbins) November 21, 2020

https://t.co/vcQFNaYemD
— GwenieB😷🗽🇺🇸 (@GwenieB66) November 21, 2020

Michigan attorney general looks at criminal charges for state officials who would overturn election results

Graig Graziosi
Sat, 21 November 2020

Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers William Hartmann, left and Republican chairperson Monica Palmer, to his right, were contacted by Donald Trump after they agreed to certify the county’s election results. (AP)More

Michigan's attorney general is reportedly looking into whether or not officials will be violating the law if they act on Donald Trump's instructions to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the state.

The Washington Post reported that Dana Nessel, a Democrat, is one of many officials growing increasingly concerned with the president’s attempts to influence the outcome of the state's election.

The publication cited anonymous sources close to the attorney general.

Michigan was in the spotlight earlier this week when two Republican board members on a canvassing committee in Wayne County refused to certify the results of the 2020 election. After public backlash, the officials buckled and agreed to certify the results.

Mr Trump called the officials on Tuesday night, after which they sought to rescind their vote to certify the election.

Wayne County is the home to the city of Detroit. Refusing to certify the results would result in primarily Democrat and disproportionately Black voters having their legally cast ballots thrown out.

Mr Trump's call was not the only effort he made to influence Michigan lawmakers; on Friday, four Michigan Republicans from the state legislature flew to Washington DC to take a meeting with the president.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the meeting was a standard meeting between the lawmakers and Mr Trump, and that it had nothing to do with the election. However, protesters - convinced that Mr Trump was going to try to pressure the officials to select electors loyal to him who would cast their votes in the electoral college in his favour - met the lawmakers in Washington DC with signs that read "shame."

Following the meeting, the Michigan lawmakers issued a statement saying they had "not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election."

The night after their meeting, the lawmakers were photographed patronising a bar at the Trump Hotel drinking Dom Perignon, sparking criticism on social media.

Hours after meeting with Trump at the White House to discuss his plans to throw out hundreds of thousands of Black votes in Detroit, these Michigan Republicans topped off the night with a $495 bottle of Dom Perignon at Trump Hotel.

But Democrats are “coastal elitists,” they say. https://t.co/KYJed3NrYQ
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 21, 2020

According to the sources that spoke to The Washington Post, the attorney general is examining whether any of the state officials engaged in bribery, perjury or conspiracy.

Mr Biden leads Mr Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes. In Michigan, a recount can only be triggered if the margin between candidates is 2,000 or fewer. Because the Trump campaign can not utilise a recount to change the election results, it appears the campaign is focused on invalidating ballots.

According to the website MLive.com, an attempt to stall Michigan from certifying the state in favour of Mr Biden, GOP National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and Michigan Republican chair Laura Cox have urged the state's Board of State Canvassers from certifying the election results.

The leaders called for the board to adjourn for two weeks, allowing time for a full audit and investigation into "numerical anomalies and credible reports of procedural irregularities."

The last-ditch effort on the part of the GOP appears to be a response to Mr Trump's apparent failure to pressure the Michigan lawmakers to intervene in the election on his behalf.

According to the Detroit News, Michigan's secretary of state Jocelyn Benson said her office would eventually perform an audit of Wayne County and other areas for any evidence of irregularities, but said she could not do so prior to the state certifying the results, as she would not have access to the legal documents she would need for the inquiry until after certification.

Shocking inequality: why San Francisco voted for 'overpaid executive tax'


Rupert Neate Wealth correspondent
Sat, 21 November 2020
  

Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

On Matt Haney’s walk to work at San Francisco city hall he passes the luxurious homes of some of the richest US tech billionaires, as well as hundreds of the country’s most desperate people living in tent encampments on the street.

The “extreme, shocking inequality” he and the other 900,000 residents are forced to navigate every day led Haney, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city’s legislative body, to propose a new “overpaid executive tax” designed to help tackle the problem.

San Francisco voters overwhelming backed a new law that will levy an extra 0.1% tax on companies that pay their chief executive more than 100-times the the median of their workforce. The surcharge increases by 0.1 percentage point for each factor of 100 that a CEO is paid above the median, up to a maximum of 0.6%.

Many of the biggest and best-known US companies would easily fall into the highest bracket. For example, Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and the world’s third richest person, was paid $595m (£449m) last year, almost 10,000 times the firm’s median salary of just under $60,000.
   

Elon Musk was paid $595m last year, almost 10,000 times the median pay at Tesla. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, was paid $134m in 2019, more than 2,300 times the firm’s median pay of $57,600.

At Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Sundar Pichai’s $86m was only 350 times the median of $246,804. Unlike Tesla and Apple, Alphabet does not operate high street stores, which brings down average pay.

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet and Google, was paid 350 time the median pay of his employees. Photograph: Tsering Topgyal/AP

The pay levels of US chief executives have increased by an average of 940% since 1978, compared with a 12% increase in workers’ pay, according to the Economic Policy Institute thinktank.

San Francisco’s new tax is estimated to bring in an extra $60m-$140m a year, revenue that will be spent on improving the housing and healthcare provision for the city’s poorest people. The tax, which comes into force in 2021, will be collected from all companies operating in the city, not just those headquartered there. The pay ratio will be calculated comparing CEO pay with the median of workers in the city, not worldwide.

Haney said that while the city desperately needs more money, the tax is also designed to “encourage companies to pay the lowest paid more or cut their executives’ huge pay”. He hopes the new law will set an example for other cities, states and even countries, like the UK, to follow to try and help tackle inequality worldwide.

“San Francisco has some of the most extreme inequality anywhere in the world, and many of the best-known companies growing here have some of the largest gaps between executive pay and worker pay,” said Haney, in an interview over Zoom as he walked to work this week.

Haney, who represents District 6, which includes the Tenderloin, Mission Bay and South of Market, added: “The contrasts are especially stark in my district where I represent some of the richest parts of San Francisco – and the country – and some of the poorest parts with huge numbers of homeless people without access to healthcare.”

The tents set up by homeless people in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. 

Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

He said the coronavirus pandemic had exacerbated San Francisco’s inequality problem, which had already created “a city of extreme suffering” that drained local government of resources.

“The heath system was already very strained, and the pandemic has exposed it even more,” Haney said. “It has shown how stark the inequality is, poor people could not afford to shelter and people of colour and essential workers bore the burnt of the pandemic.

“At the same time the richest have gotten much richer [from the pandemic] it shows the fundamental flaw of our economic system. A small number of people continue to make massive profits at a time when almost everyone else was suffering more than ever.

“The only way to solve inequality in San Francisco, is to make those making making huge profits to share it,” he said.

“There is a very dangerous imbalance here, people don’t like where we are going. We want to live in a city where we and our neighbours are doing OK, are healthy and safe, when you have a city so unequal it is very hard to keep everyone health and safe.

“It is the 0.001% of society who are causing the problem, there has to be a reckoning or we will see more suffering and poverty and it is a concern to all of us – our health and quality of life. The pandemic has shown us how we are all connected, and when some people are unable to take care of themselves it can put us all at risk.”

Haney said that in the face of inaction from the national and state government, the city had decided to act on its own. “It is a twofold goal, to address inequality and bring in new resources to allow us to response to the biggest emergency,” he said.

Haney hopes San Francisco could act as a template for others to follow. Portland, Oregon, introduced a similar but more limited levy in 2018 and expected to collect about $3m from roughly 150 companies.

“The overwhelming victory here will lead other cities and states to follow,” Haney said.

“San Francisco is a modern day version of a A Tale of Two Cities everywhere you look, we can’t have a nation that turns into that.”

BP sells its London head office as it shifts to low-carbon energy

Suban Abdulla
Sat, 21 November 2020

BP has agreed to lease its 1 St James’s Square property in central London back from Lifestyle International for two years.

 Photo: Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

BP (BP.L) has announced the sale of its London head office to Hong Kong investment firm Lifestyle International (1212.HK) for £250m ($332m).

The British oil giant also agreed to lease its 1 St James’s Square property in central London back from Lifestyle International for two years, saying the deal would give it the opportunity “to reimagine how and where a reinvented BP should be headquartered.”

BP moved into the premises in 2002 after acquiring it from Ericsson (ERIC) for a reported £110m.

It is the latest string of disposals for BP, which is aiming to sell $25bn of assets by 2025 amid a restructuring that pushes the business into low-carbon energy.

The company, led by chief executive Bernard Looney, has already divested or agreed a deal on half of its target, as it seeks to reduce its debt.

READ MORE: BP looks to net-zero goal with new green hydrogen project

In August, it was reported that BP was hunting for a buyer for its London office, as the pandemic changed work patterns.

At the time the property was expected to fetch up to £300m. The sale announcement is £50m short of the predicted value.

Earlier this year, Looney said that the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) company will move to a more “hybrid work style”, balancing home and office working.

BP employs 6,500 staff across its offices in London and in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey.

Last week, the oil giant announced it was teaming up with Danish wind power group Orsted (ORSTED.CO) on a green hydrogen project in Germany.

The project is planning to build a renewable energy plant, including a 50 megawatt (MW) electrolyser, at the Lingen refinery, harnessing power from the North Sea to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The move would replace 20% of natural gas-based hydrogen at the plant.

Watch: BP's green hydrogen project takes off

UK

Racism in opinion pieces will continue while media lacks diversity, report finds

Mostafa Rachwani THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 21 November 2020

Photograph: Alamy

The Australian media industry is doomed to continue churning out controversial and often racist opinion pieces, for diminishing returns, unless newsrooms and their owners become more diverse, experts say.

A recent report from the anti-racism body All Together Now (ATN) analysed 315 racialised opinion pieces published across Australia over 12 months. The report’s authors found that 89% were authored by writers of an Anglo/Celtic or European background, 53% them involved negative depictions of race and 89% used techniques of covert racism.

“It reflects poorly,” said Antoinette Lattouf, a director at Media Diversity Australia and a senior journalist at Channel Ten. She told the Guardian the ATN report, released in October, highlighted the malaise gripping the industry.

Related: Rupert Murdoch tries to weather News Corp's climate crisis at AGM | The Weekly Beast

“The problem with the broader news business model is that it is struggling,” she says. “It’s struggling to sustain quality, independent and good journalism. And opinion pieces are easier to write and cost less.”

The ATN report, which recommended the building of cultural competency and racial literacy within newsrooms and diversifying hires, analysed opinion pieces published by a range of mainstream Australian media outlets between April 2019 and April 2020. Its findings pointed to the “racialisation” of the coronavirus, saying that the language used in some of the pieces contributed to and perpetuated racism against Asian and Asian-Australian people.

“Even opinion pieces presenting surface-level inclusivity were ultimately perpetuating racist themes,” it said.

Dr Usha Rodrigues, a senior lecturer in journalism at Deakin University, said the findings were unsurprising and reflected the current media ownership model in Australia.

“You would have to look at the existing structure of the media industry in Australia – a very high level of concentration of commercial media ownership, and the existence of the two public service broadcasters to mitigate the agenda of commercial media,” she said.

“To some extent, all of the responsibility of being fair, balanced and representative of Australia has been relegated to the two public service broadcasters.”

In 2016, a landmark study on media ownership around the world, Who Owns the World’s Media?, was published and found that Australia had the third most concentrated newspaper industry in the world, behind China and Egypt.

To Rodrigues, the diversification of newsrooms was about reflecting changing demographics in Australia and improving a financial model that had left many mastheads struggling.

“This is a miscalculation on the part of commercial media, which are already reeling from increased competition from social media as a source of news; the entry of international media competitors (at the national level news); and of course the shifting of advertising dollars to online platforms.

“The ‘sameness’ of news and views offered by a news organisation is actually counter-productive in today’s competitive conditions for the commercial media.

“The only way to compel news organisations to provide more balanced news and views is to improve diversity in the newsroom. I am not talking about one or two journalists from diverse background, I am talking about a fair representation as per the Australian demographic mix.”

Lattouf said diversity in newsrooms was essential to both combating the proliferation of these opinion pieces and improving the financial standing of many of these publications.

Related: Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull challenge News Corp over reports of ‘foreign interference’ in petition

“There’s piles of international research that shows that diverse organisations are more profitable and more innovative,” she said.

“So if you don’t want to do it for the moral reason or to increase social cohesion and to lessen racial division, well, it makes commercial sense to have a more diverse workplace.”

The report examined stories from the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Courier Mail, the Herald Sun, the Australian and the Daily Telegraph. It also monitored television programs such as The Project, A Current Affair, ABC’s 7.30 and 60 Minutes.

It found that 89% of the pieces that were labelled “racist” opinion pieces were authored by people from an Anglo-Celtic and/or European background.

Deliana Iacoban, a project manager at All Together Now and one of the authors of the report, told the Guardian the findings were part of a larger discussion on diversity in newsrooms.

“We wanted to support, with evidence, that racism in the media is still a big issue, which is why we collected this data and why we published this report. We need to push back against a very problematic media landscape.”

The report looked at 315 opinion pieces across the media landscape and found that of the pieces that discussed Muslims 75% contained negative representations.

Fifty-five per cent that discussed Chinese or Chinese-Australians, and 47% that discussed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contained negative representations of those communities.

Lattouf lamented the report’s findings, saying there was an audience aching for nuance and representation in reporting.

“I think audiences deserve better,” she said. “Forty-nine per cent of Australians are either born overseas or have a parent born overseas.”

A recent study from the Asian Australian Alliance reported 377 incidents of racism towards Asian and Asian-Australian people between 2 April and 2 June 2020.

The report found that 60% of racist incidents involved physical or verbal harassment including slurs/name calling, physical intimidation, threats or being spat at.

Lattouf said the rise in racist incidents reflected a national and global conversation driven by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, it’s not unexpected, given what’s happening around the globe, with the previous rise of Trumpism, and the rise of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese sentiments in the discussion of Covid-19.”

The report from All Together Now identified five key techniques it said “mobilise and perpetuate anti-Asian racism in contemporary social commentary”, including the use of irony, stereotypes, fallacies, intertextuality and scaremongering.

Seventy-nine per cent of the stories the report identified as racist were found to use “covert racism”, which worked to blur “the lines between legitimate political criticism and racism”.

• This article and headline were amended on Sunday 22 November to make clear that the sample analysed was 315 selected articles, not all opinion pieces published over a year.

War of the weedkiller: why environmentalists are concerned about moves to ban Roundup

Graham Readfearn THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 21 November 2020


Glyphosate – the weedkiller better known by its most-famous brand name Roundup – does not have the best of public profiles.

The subject of multibillion dollar payouts over claims it causes cancer, the world’s most-popular herbicide developed by Monsanto is not known for having too many friends among environmentalists.

But away from lawsuits and petitions, there are concerns among some opponents of Australia’s invasive weeds that glyphosate – a key tool in their armoury – could be taken away from them.

Next week the Invasive Species Council will begin posting and emailing copies of a new report that looks to defend the chemical from what the council fears is a trend towards restricting its use, and even banning it entirely.

Related: Australia's agriculture minister says Roundup is safe after $16bn US cancer lawsuit

“A ban on glyphosate would have serious environmental consequences,” says the report, seen by Guardian Australia.

“Weed invasions would increase in areas of native vegetation including national parks, and erosion would increase on farms.”

A small number of Australian councils – such as Georges River in south Sydney and Fairfield in the city’s west – have already banned glyphosate. So have several countries.

In July 2019, 500 staff at Blacktown city council walked off the job in protest at being ordered to use glyphosate. They returned when the council promised to trial alternatives.

Andrew Cox, the Invasive Species Council’s chief executive, fears that the steady flow of opposition could lead to a flood.

“We’re worried that restrictions are being put in place across Australia without a scientific basis,” he says.

“We want to make sure that chemical use is safe and necessary, and we don’t want to put people’s lives at risk. But we don’t want to make it impossible for people to do really important weed control.

“Weeds are a major threat to biodiversity and without active management to control weeds and stop them spreading, it would threaten our ecosystems.

“Glyphosate is a good herbicide that has lots of benefits to weed control, particularly for environmental restoration projects and land care programs. To not have that tool available will severely hamper those efforts.”

The Invasive Species Council’s report is researched and written by Tim Low, an ecologist and author of seven books.

He says such was the chemical’s reputation, just authoring the report was “the riskiest thing I have ever written”.

But he says he has become worried the chemical was being unfairly maligned in the public eye, as well as in the “left-leaning media”.

Low’s report picks through the scientific research on the chemical, its origins, uses and its criticisms.

Low also charts the herbicide’s recent history, including the fallout from a 2015 declaration by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that glyphosate was a “probably carcinogenic”.

The decision to add glyphosate to the agency’s “2A” category, puts it alongside other chemicals that are probable carcinogens, but also alongside other activities in the same category such as consumption of red meat, doing night shifts, working in a hairdresser and drinking beverages hotter than 65C.

The IARC’s category of known carcinogens includes alcohol, processed meat and solar radiation (sunshine).

Legitimate concerns about glyphosate, writes Low, have been “exacerbated by some wildly exaggerated comments”.

Low writes: “Cancer is such a feared disease that many people might suppose that any cancer risk is reason to ban a chemical. But today’s world abounds in carcinogens.”

Related: The Roundup row: is the world’s most popular weedkiller carcinogenic?

The government’s Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority carried out an assessment of glyphosate after the IARC listing. About 500 products containing glyphosate are registered for use in Australia.

The agency said after the assessment it would monitor emerging science closely, but concluded “there are no scientific grounds for placing glyphosate and products containing glyphosate under formal reconsideration”. It said the weight of evidence showed “exposure to glyphosate does not pose a carcinogenic or genotoxic risk to humans”.

The agency is not alone in pushing back against the IARC’s finding. A review from the United State’s government’s EPA found “there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label”.

The EU’s European Chemicals Agency also found no reason to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen, although it could cause eye damage and was toxic to aquatic life.

But the chemical continues to make headlines and have strong and passionate opposition, and court hearings are on the horizon.

Monsanto developed the weedkiller in the 1970s. In the 1990s, Monsanto developed genetically-modified crops that were “Roundup ready” and resistant to the herbicide.

In August 2018, Monsanto was ordered to pay US$289m ($397m) to a groundskeeper dying of blood cell cancer. Bayer, Monsanto’s owner, is appealing that case, and two others.

In June this year, the German multinational Bayer announced it would be paying almost $16bn to settle claims the firm inherited when it bought Monsanto in 2018.

I don’t know how that evidence can be ignored. It’s an absolute delusion to suggest that you can only control weeds with poison

Jane Bremmer

Bayer chief executive Werner Baumann said at the time there was extensive scientific evidence that the company’s glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup “does not cause cancer” and the company stood strongly behind its glyphosate-based products.

A class action is also being brought in Australia against three former and current Monsanto companies, slated for a hearing in federal court in March 2022.

Lawyers allege Roundup is carcinogenic and raises people’s risk of the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Jane Bremmer, a campaigner at the National Toxics Network, said glyphosate was prolific in the environment, dangerous, and court cases around the world had shown the herbicide was carcinogenic.

“I don’t know how that evidence can be ignored,” she says. “It’s an absolute delusion to suggest that you can only control weeds with poison.

“Glyphosate is leaving a toxic load in our groundwater and river systems.”

Bremmer is a volunteer with a group caring for a bush reserve on the Swann River on Perth’s outskirts without the use of chemicals. They prevent weeds growing by using organic products, covering areas to block sunlight and mechanical and hand weeding, she says.

Glyphosate and other chemicals are poorly regulated because of the power of the petrochemical industry, she says.

Peter Dixon is a board member of the Australian Association of Bush Regenerators (AABR) – a group with more than 700 members promoting ecological restoration.

He says they are a pragmatic bunch of people who know their way around the differences between a hazard (like a shark) and a risk (the chance of being bitten).

“We all have chemicals in our houses that can kill us, but we mitigate the risk of those hazards through knowledge and processes. It’s the same with herbicides,” he says.

According to Dixon, the group’s members are not worried about getting cancer, but they are worried about moves to ban glyphosate.

Dixon, an environmental consultant and volunteer bush regenerator, has been part of an AABR working group on glyphosate created “to try and counter misinformation” over the herbicide.

On the banks of the degraded Duck River in greater Sydney, Dixon has used the herbicide for years as part of a volunteer bush care group to knock back invasive balloon vine and trad.

Bush regenerators use the herbicide as a spray and also on woody weeds where the plant is cut back and the chemical applied like paint on to the stump.

Related: Revealed: Monsanto predicted crop system would damage US farms

He describes glyphosate as a “critical tool” that can keep invasive weeds at bay on a scale that mechanical measures could not.

He says in bush regeneration, glyphosate is used not as a perennial treatment – like in food production – but in a way that lets native vegetation come back to the point where the chemical isn’t needed any more.

Other available chemicals, he says, have not been as well studied as glyphosate and could turn out to be more toxic or less effective.

“The amount of funding that goes into restoring ecosystems is tiny,” says Dixon.

“It’s possible that without the herbicide glyphosate you would need an order of magnitude more resources to do that work.

“Because of the rate of land clearing and degradation, we can’t afford that luxury.”