NO ONE ASKED US

Moroccan Islamist groups reject normalizing ties with Israel

By Reuters Staff

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco’s main Islamist groups on Saturday rejected Rabat’s plan to normalize ties with Israel following a deal brokered by the United States.

The religious branch of the co-ruling PJD party, the Unity and Reform Movement (MUR), said in a statement the move was “deplorable” and denounced “all attempts at normalisation and the Zionist infiltration.” The Islamist PJD party was more nuanced, endorsing King Mohammed VI’s actions support for the Palestinian cause while reiterating the party’s “firm position against the Zionist occupation.”

Unlike its government coalition partners who backed the deal, it took the PJD two days to react after disagreements emerged between the party’s senior leadership, according to a source close to the matter.

A core element of the deal brokered by President Donald Trump was U.S. recognition of Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over the Western Sahara. A decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks to establish an independent state.

“The United States made an important proclamation that stresses Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces and opens new horizons for strengthening Morocco’s position in international circles. It also further isolates the adversaries of our territorial integrity,” the Islamist party said in a statement.

King Mohammed VI has the last say over major diplomatic decisions.On Friday, Morocco’s outlawed Adl Wal Ihssane, one of the largest opposition groups in the country, said normalisation deals a “stab from the back to the Palestinian cause.”

AMERIKA THE GUNRUNNER
Exclusive-Trump administration moves forward with $1 billion Moroccan arms deal
By Patricia Zengerle, Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration moved forward with $1 billion in sales of drones and precision-guided weapons to Morocco on Friday, sending a notice to Congress about the potential deals, according to sources familiar with the notification.

The deal includes four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones made by privately-held General Atomics, and Hellfire, Paveway and JDAM precision-guided munitions made by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing, the sources said.

Reuters was first to report on Thursday that Washington was negotiating the sale and would notify Congress shortly.

News of the deal came as the White House announced an agreement brokered with U.S. help for Morocco to normalize relations with Israel.

Earlier this year the U.S. offered stealthy F-35 jet fighters to the United Arab Emirates in a side deal to the U.S.-brokered agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize relations.

Congress is notified about major international weapons deals and given the opportunity to review them before they go through. Under U.S. weapons export law, members of Congress can attempt to block such sales by offering resolutions of disapproval, but sources said that was not expected in this case

A deal with Morocco would be among the first drone sales after the Trump administration moved ahead with a plan to sell more drones to more countries by reinterpreting an international arms control agreement called the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

This fall drone sales moved ahead to Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates. An effort to block the UAE sale failed in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.


Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Mike Stone; Editing by Chris Sanders and Daniel Wallis

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MOROCCO (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

#CAPPLETALI$M  #WILDCATSTRIKE

Apple Inc is investigating a Taiwan contractor, Wistron Corp, flouted guidelines at an iPhone manufacturing facility in India, after some workers ransacked the plant in a protest over unpaid wages.

© Reuters/STRINGER Men wearing protective face masks walk past broken windows of a facility run by Wistron Corp in Narsapura

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Monday it is investigating whether a Taiwan contractor, Wistron Corp, flouted supplier guidelines at an iPhone manufacturing facility in India, after some workers ransacked the plant in a protest over unpaid wages.

Thousands of contract workers gathered on the grounds of the Wistron site on the outskirts of India's tech hub of Bengaluru on Saturday demanding unpaid wages and better working hours.

As police arrived, the crowd turned violent and video from the scene showed people armed with rods and sticks smashing equipment and vandalizing cars, causing what the company estimated at $60 million in damage.

"We have teams on the ground and have immediately launched a detailed investigation at Wistron's Narasapura facility," Apple said in an email, adding it was dedicated to ensuring everyone in its supply chain was treated with dignity and respect.

Apple said it was sending staff and auditors to the site and was cooperating with police in their investigation.

Wistron, one of Apple's top global suppliers, said in a regulatory filing in Taiwan it "always abides by the law, and fully supports and is cooperating with relevant authorities".

Wistron has been making iPhones in India for nearly four years and its operation has been seen as a success story for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that is looking to boost manufacturing.

"The incident hurts the 'Make in India' label," said independent brand consultant Harish Bijoor, referring to the government promotion campaign slogan. "Such events are small scars left on India as a manufacturing facility."

Apple, under the leadership of Tim Cook, has been looking to not only step up its marketing and presence in India - one of the biggest smartphone markets in the world - but also expand its sourcing footprint in the South Asian nation.

A minister for the state of Karnataka, where the factory is located, said the government was talking to all parties and that the labour department was investigating any underpayment of wages and non-clearance of other dues.

The unrest comes as Modi's government is under pressure from protesting farmers opposed to reforms in the agricultural sector, which they say threaten their livelihoods.

MILLIONS IN DAMAGES

Videos taken by employees in the Wistron factory showed men, many wearing masks due to the coronavirus outbreak, destroying security cameras, windows and other equipment.

The crowd smashed four cars, two golf carts, stole laptops and smartphones and destroyed other office equipment, according to a police report filed by Wistron and reviewed by Reuters.

In the complaint, Wistron accused more than 5,000 contract workers and some 2,000 unknown people of destruction of property. It put the losses at 4.38 billion rupees ($60 million).

Police have arrested 149 people over the violence, a senior officer said, while a search was on to identify and arrest more perpetrators as the investigation continues.

Trade union leader M.D. Harigovind said the violence was a direct result of the "brutal exploitation of workers and sweatshop like conditions".

Wistron, whose workers are not unionized, did not respond to questions seeking comment on the allegations, but said in a statement earlier it was "deeply shocked" by the violence it blamed on "unknown persons ... with unclear intentions".

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal in New Delhi, Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Writing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Editing by Euan Rocha, Arun Koyyur and Stephen Coates)

SABOTAGE IWW.ORG

Holiday retail workers seek "temporary lifeline" in warehouse jobs, if they can find one
By Victoria Waldersee, Melissa Fares and Nivedita Balu 

© Reuters FILE PHOTO: Worker operates a forklift at Europa Worldwide Group's warehouse in Dartford, Britain in this undated handout obtained by Reuters November 28, 2020.

(Reuters) - This time of year, hundreds of thousands of seasonal retail workers across North America and Europe would usually be wrapping gifts, stirring hot chocolates, tidying Christmas displays or assisting the flurry of last-minute shoppers.

But the balance of available holiday jobs this year has radically shifted from storefront to warehouse and delivery amid record purchases online. And with millions of retail workers in the United States and Europe already laid-off, competition for what remaining jobs are left is fierce, economists say.

The supply of available holiday jobs in U.S. customer-facing retail fell by a third to 302,100 this year from around 466,400 jobs last November, data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics gathered by consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed.

Macy's Inc cut seasonal hires to 25,000 this year from 80,000 in 2019. JC Penney Company Inc, narrowly rescued from bankruptcy in early November, is hiring just 1,700 people in contrast to 37,000 last year. For a graphic, click here 'Tis the season: Fewer retail jobs up for grabs.

Meanwhile, applications for U.S. storefront retail positions have jumped by around 34% year-on-year, according to November data from jobs site Glassdoor.

Kayla Frederick, 31, was laid off from her position as leasing assistant for a tour bus company in Florence, Alabama in April as venues closed and tours were cancelled because of the pandemic. In November, she started her first ever seasonal job in a local clothing boutique's warehouse, pulling online orders, folding inventory and tagging intake items.

"I never expected to be laid off this long," Frederick said. "I'm thankful this gave me a job."

In Europe, data from jobs sites like Indeed, Adzuna, Student Jobs and CV Library paints a similar picture of lower vacancies and rising applications. The number of available seasonal jobs in the UK was down by a third year-on-year in November to 13,600, according to Adzuna data.

CV Library reported a 60% drop in the number of customer-facing retail jobs listed in the UK compared to last year – but clicks per job have doubled. In Germany and the UK, sales associates at jobs site Student Jobs reported increased contact from frustrated students not hearing back from companies inundated in applications.

Data from Indeed in the UK showed a jump of around a third in clicks per posting on seasonal jobs this year compared to last, according to a report by Indeed's UK in-house economist Jack Kennedy.

"Jobseekers may be looking at Christmas jobs as a potential temporary lifeline as job losses mount," Kennedy wrote.

'NEW WORLD OF RETAIL'

UK postal service Royal Mail increased its seasonal hires to 33,000 this year from 20,000 in 2019, while FedEx Corp in the U.S. hired a quarter more seasonal workers, taking total hires to 70,000 from 55,000, labour statistics bureau data showed.

"This is likely a window into the new world of retail," Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, said. "What was done out of necessity during a pandemic is likely to become an annual online shopping tradition for future holidays."

Glassdoor saw a 120% year-on-year increase in applications for e-commerce roles like delivery drivers, warehouse workers and order pickers in the United States and a 45% jump in the UK.

Oscar Jiminez, a twenty-two year old college senior in Southern California, is among the lucky ones. He landed seasonal employment in October in a gig he believed would have him working as a customer service agent on an "essential" retailers' sales floor. But he found himself in a warehouse at the back of the store instead.

"This wasn't exactly in my job description." Jiminez said. "So far I've been picking orders, going around the store, finding things people purchased online and getting them ready for curbside pickup, ship-to-home... I'm constantly on the move."

Some supermarkets are also pushing up hiring. In the UK, British supermarket Tesco posted 2,000 more seasonal vacancies than last year. It posted its seasonal vacancies on student jobs site E4S a month later than usual because of lockdown uncertainty, but still received over twice as many applications, according to website data.

German supermarket giant Lidl took on 2,400 apprentices this year in Germany, 40% higher than last year's intake. Lidl and Amazon.com Inc were already boosting their staff by a significant amount throughout the year to deal with the surge in demand, reducing the need for temporary seasonal hires, the companies said.

Amazon hired just 100,000 seasonal staff this year in the United States, half last year's total of 200,000, because it had already boosted operational hires by 275,000 throughout the year, it said in September.

Lidl took an opportunistic approach to finding candidates this season in Germany, where a partial lockdown is likely to be toughened in coming days. "Bar work is so yesterday," read a November 30 recruitment ad. "Look forward to a secure job for €12.50 an hour - switch industries and get into retail."

Lidl pulled the ad within a day after backlash from the gastronomy sector on social media, it told Reuters, apologizing for the distress the message caused. It declined to say how many new positions it had on offer.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee in Lisbon, Melissa Fares in New York, Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Vanessa O'Connell and Edward Tobin)

ABOUT TIME
The Cleveland Indians are changing their name after 105 years.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Citing three people familiar with the decision, The New York Times reported Sunday night that the team is moving away from a name considered racist for decades. The Indians have been internally discussing a potential name change for months.

A team spokesman told The Associated Press the franchise has no immediate comment on the report.

The Times said the team could make a formal announcement later this week. It's not known when the name change will take effect or if the team has settled on a new moniker.

Cleveland's move away from Indians follows a similar decision earlier this year by the NFL's Washington Football Team, which was previously known as the Redskins.

For years, Native American groups and others have protested against Cleveland's use of Indians as its name as well as other imagery used by the American League charter franchise founded in 1901. Last year, the team removed the contentious Chief Wahoo logo from its caps and jerseys, but the smiling, cartoonish mascot has remained popular and merchandise is still sold bearing its image.

The Indians have dealt with a backlash from fans upset over Chief Wahoo's removal and the club is certain to hear more with the decision to change its name.

“Oh no! What is going on?" President Donald Trump tweeted. "This is not good news, even for ”Indians". Cancel culture at work!"

In July, just hours after Washington's plans became known after being pressured by several sponsors, including FedEx which holds naming rights to the football's team's stadium, Cleveland owner Paul Dolan released a statement saying the team would review “the best path forward with our team name.”

In the months since, the team has consulted players, front office members, coaching staff, community leaders, share holders and Native American groups.

A few days after Dolan's statement, Indians manager Terry Francona said it was time to "move forward” with the name change.

"I've been thinking about it and been thinking about it before we put out that statement,” said Francona, who has been with the club since 2013. “I know in the past, when I’ve been asked about, whether it’s our name or the Chief Wahoo, I think I would usually answer and say I know that we’re never trying to be disrespectful.

“And I still feel that way. But I don’t think that’s a good enough answer today. I think it’s time to move forward. It’s a very difficult subject. It’s also delicate.”

WOULD YOU LIKE SOME CHEESE WITH THAT WHINE

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Tom Withers, The Associated Press

#GOVEGETARIAN

Industry group seeks to shorten two-week shutdown of Nova Scotia poultry plant

THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT THE HEALTH & SAFETY OF THE WORKERS


KENTVILLE, N.S. — The provincial government needs to speed up COVID-19 testing and look for options to shorten the planned two-week shutdown of a poultry processing plant in Berwick, the Chicken Farmers of Nova Scotia said on the weekend.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The head of the organization, Thom Oulton, said the closure of the only federal chicken-processing plant in the province was a concern for both farmers and consumers.

HEY DON'T ASSUME TO SPEAK FOR ME

"It's hard for us to agree that a 14-day shutdown is necessary when we don't know how widespread the problem is," Oulton said in a statement.

The province closed Eden valley Poultry last week following an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among employees.

"We have no evidence of community spread at this point, but we have to act fast, " Premier Stephen McNeil said Friday.

As of Saturday, six employees had tested positive and were self isolating.

Public health authorities urged residents living between New Minas and Middleton were advised to be tested as a precaution.

While protecting everyone's health had to be top priority, Oulton said, the security of the food supply was also important and the shutdown needed to be as short as possible.

"Consumers are counting on farmers to supply them with a steady, safe supply of quality local chicken," he said. "Every day the plant is down has the potential to put our local food supply at risk."

The plant has about 450 employees.

Oulton said the industry was looking to processing plants in New Brunswick and Quebec for help during the shutdown.

"We want the government working with the plant to look at all available options," he said.

— By Kevin Bissett in Fredericton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2020.

The Canadian Press

COMMENTARY:

 Not even SARS could prepare the hospitality industry for COVID-19
A virulent virus, worried travellers and a tourism sector on the brink. Sounds like 2020? In fact, this was the experience in a few global cities in 2002 and 2003.

© Provided by Global News 

Passengers wearing face masks arrive at Adolfo Suarez-Barajas international airport, outskirts Madrid, Spain, Sunday, June 21, 2020. Spain opened its borders to European tourists on Sunday in a bid to kickstart its vital tourism economy, but Brazil and South Africa reported record new levels of coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Toronto was one of them. The city’s battle against a deadly virus — and the struggle for the rehabilitation of its damaged tourism sector — offers lessons for cities wondering how they will navigate a post-COVID world. And even plan for the next crisis, whenever it arrives.


Hotels, as places of refuge, pleasure, business and also contagion, are important places to explore how the tourism sector pilots its way through pandemics. The experience with SARS offers sobering lessons for Toronto and urban tourist destinations globally.

Read more: Canadian tourism sector needs help through ‘very, very dire’ straits, industry heads say (Aug. 10, 2020)

Similar impacts of SARS and COVID-19

How are the tourism crises of 2002-03 and today similar, and how do they differ? Both public health crisis resulted in sudden, dramatic declines in hotel occupancy. However, while all travel came to a sudden stop globally in 2020, the 2002-03 events centred on a few cities, with Toronto, Singapore and Hong Kong under the microscope.

Hotel occupancy rates in these cities recorded steep declines, as travellers headed elsewhere, businesses suspended events and worried airlines and public health authorities explored protocols such as the now-ubiquitous face masks.

The collapse in travel in winter 2020 occurred at a point when the overall economy and the travel sector were in robust shape and recording record profits. In 2002-03, circumstances were very different. Global travel had slowed due to the Iraq War. Increasing documentation requirements and lingering concerns over security after 9/11 reduced cross-border traffic between Canada and the United States.

Toronto hotels and SARS

The arrival of SARS dealt a body blow to Canada’s largest city.

Both SARS and COVID-19 have had a severe impact on tourism and travel. Hotels are barometers of Toronto’s economic condition, and reveal the unequal impacts pandemics have on employment. Marginally employed people — immigrants and low-income workers — are over-represented among hotel workers. They lose their jobs quickly in the face of reduced demand.

Seasonal employment prospects also dim in the face of disruption. As in summer 2020, student summer employment was impacted in 2003, especially as Toronto entered the crucial summer months back, briefly, on the World Health Organization’s SARS travel advisory. The blow dealt to the tourism sector locally was hard but, as it turned out, by no means fatal.

© Provided by Global News

 A woman in a black suit with a blue suitcase uses an Air Canada check-in kiosk at the airport. A sign with the text SARS is in the foreground.A passenger checks in as a warning sign gives information about SARS at Pearson International Airport on May 30, 2003. 

CP PHOTO/Kevin Frayer

Toronto’s experience with SARS suggests that once a place appears safe, reassured travellers return — with some coaxing and a lot of co-ordinated planning. In late spring 2003, Toronto businesses developed a co-ordinated response to recovery. Travel packages that included accommodation, restaurant reservations, sporting events and theatre tickets began to lure tourists back. This promotion was accompanied by an aggressive and co-ordinated roll-back of gasoline prices.

After SARS, a celebration

The SARS crisis also led to the creation of a body for the tourism and hospitality sector, chaired by Tourism Toronto, which aimed to restore the city’s reputation. Local and provincial governments committed funds for advertising to reassure prospective tourists that Toronto was safe. The federal government also announced additional funds to promote Canada as a destination in international markets.

The most famous part of the reputation rehabilitation strategy was the hosting of the July 30, 2003, SARS benefit concert. Several hundred thousand fans cheered a lineup of world-famous musicians, headlined by the Rolling Stones. The results of that mega-event are hard to measure in terms of impact, despite the large and enthusiastic crowds that it drew. Such an event is unimaginable today, with the timeline for the COVID-19’s defeat far off, and the certainty that doubts will linger about the wisdom of such boisterous, large-scale assemblies for a long time to come.

In 2003, good news for the tourism sector arrived quickly. In fact, by late 2004, hotels were recording pre-SARS occupancy levels. It seemed as if the sector had dodged a bullet. But it had also dodged a critical opportunity to reflect on how new technologies and standards might reduce the impact of a future pandemic. And this is perhaps where the comparison proves most illuminating.

Read more: Looking back — Toronto’s 2003 SARS outbreak (Jan. 25, 2020)

After COVID-19?

The hotel sector faces dramatically different conditions today. It is in the midst of a global pandemic affecting all sectors of the economy. SARS resulted in far fewer deaths, over a shorter period of time, in a small number of major cities.

While the story of hotels’ recovery is inspiring, the pace was so fast that few paused to ask is larger lessons would be learned: What vulnerabilities might have been disguised in the rush to restore Toronto’s dynamic tourism sector? How could new technologies, systematic contingency planning and early detection systems might have become integrated into hotel management post-2003?

The greatest lesson of SARS may be how, amid the excited focus on recovery and a return to normalcy, so little thought was given to structurally prepare for the prospect of future crises. We need to keep these lessons in mind as we plan our emergence from COVID-19, and the resumption of travel.

Kevin James, Professor, History, University of Guelph; Jose Gabriel Alonzo, Masters student, History, University of Guelph, and Mark Holmes, Assistant Professor, Business and Economics, University of Guelph

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

AND WE SIGNED NAFTA 2 WHY?

Canada to challenge U.S. softwood lumber export duties through World Trade Organization
Emerald Bensadoun

Canada said it will be considering "all of its legal options" to challenge Canadian softwood lumber export duties unveiled by the United States last month, the international minister of trade said Friday

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© Global News A softwood lumber mill in New Brunswick

“These duties have caused unjustified harm for Canadian workers and businesses, and are hampering economic recovery on both sides of the border — especially when our people are being affected by the health and economic impacts of COVID-19," Minister Mary Ng said in a statement.

Trudeau says he continues to talk to Trump about ‘challenges’ around softwood lumber

“Canada will consider all of its legal options with respect to U.S. duties on softwood lumber, including the possibility of bringing this challenge to the World Trade Organization for review under its dispute settlement mechanism.”

Read more: Canada to keep fighting in softwood tariff dispute with U.S., Trudeau says

Ng's comments come in response to a new 7.42 per cent countervailing duty rate for most Canadian producers of softwood lumber that was established by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Nov. 24.

This, and an additional 1.57 per cent anti-dumping rate combine to 8.99 per cent, although the Canadian government said "certain companies also received company-specific rates."

Previously, Canadians exporting certain softwood lumber products to the U.S. were subject to a combined rate of 20.23 per cent. Last month, the federal government said it welcomed the reduction as a "step in the right direction," but reaffirmed its position that "unfair" fees on Canada's lumber industry must come to an end.

Video: Trudeau promises to fight for Canadian lumber industry with U.S.

In August, the World Trade Organization ruled against the U.S. over duties imposed in 2017 on the grounds that the American government had failed to prove 16 claims related to Canada's lumber industry, resulting in unfair subsidy for Canadian producers.

Ng said "any duties" imposed on Canadian exports of softwood lumber to the U.S. were "unwarranted and unfair."

“Our government will continue to vigorously defend its forestry sector and the thousands of hard-working Canadians it employs," she said.

Read more: Canadian lumber in legal limbo as U.S. appeals WTO ruling

The international trade minister's comments are the latest development in a series of disputes between Canada and the U.S. over tariffs that have worsened over recent months.

Canadian officials have argued that U.S. duties drove up construction costs in both countries, inflicting further damage on a lumber industry already ravaged by the effects of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Lumber Coalition has countered that even reducing the duty rate "understates true levels of subsidies and dumping," by the Canadian lumber industry.

“The U.S. lumber industry will continue to push for the trade laws to be enforced to the fullest extent possible in the second administrative review to allow U.S. manufacturers and workers the chance to prosper,” coalition co-chair Jason Brochu said in a previous statement to Global News.

Scientists focus on bats for clues to prevent next pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO — Night began to fall in Rio de Janeiro’s Pedra Branca state park as four Brazilian scientists switched on their flashlights to traipse along a narrow trail of mud through dense rainforest. The researchers were on a mission: capture bats and help prevent the next global pandemic

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© Provided by The Canadian Press BATS IN BAGS

A few meters ahead, nearly invisible in the darkness, a bat made high-pitched squeaks as it strained its wings against the thin nylon net that had ensnared it. One of the researchers removed the bat, which used its pointed teeth to bite her gloved fingers.

The November nighttime outing was part of a project at Brazil’s state-run Fiocruz Institute to collect and study viruses present in wild animals — including bats, which many scientists believe were linked to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The goal now is to identify other viruses that may be highly contagious and lethal in humans, and to use that information to devise plans to stop them from ever infecting people — to forestall the next potential global disease outbreak before it gets started.

In a highly connected world, an outbreak in one place endangers the entire globe, just as the coronavirus did. And the Brazilian team is just one among many worldwide racing to minimize the risk of a second pandemic this century.

To some, it might seem too soon to contemplate the next global outbreak, with the world still grappling with the devastating fallout of the ongoing one. But scientists say it's highly like that, without savvy intervention, another novel virus will jump from animal to human host and find the conditions to spread like wildfire.

As this pandemic has shown, modern transport can disperse the pathogen to all corners of the globe in a matter of hours and spread easily in densely populated cities.

It’s not a question of if, but of when, according to Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expert at Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India.

She pointed to previous research that found India was among the most likely places in the world for such a “spillover” event to occur, due to population density and increasing human and livestock incursion into its dense tropical forests teeming with wildlife.

It's no coincidence that many scientists are focusing attention on the world’s only flying mammals — bats.

Bats are thought to be the original or intermediary hosts for multiple viruses that have spawned recent epidemics, including COVID-19, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Nipah virus, Hendra virus and Marburg virus. A 2019 study found that of viruses originating from the five most common mammalian sources — primates, rodents, carnivores, ungulates and bats — those from bats are the most virulent in humans.

Bats are a diverse group, with more than 1,400 species flitting across every continent except Antarctica. But what many have in common are adaptations that allow them to carry viruses that are deadly in humans and livestock while exhibiting minimal symptoms themselves — meaning they are able travel and shed those viruses, instead of being quickly hobbled.

“The secret is that bats have unusual immune systems, and that’s related to their ability to fly,” said Raina Plowright, an epidemiologist who studies bats at Montana State University.

To get off the ground and sustain flight requires an incredible amount of energy, with bats’ metabolic rate increasing sixteen-fold, Plowright said. “You’d expect them to get cell damage from all that metabolic exertion,” she said.

But that doesn’t happen. Instead, bats are remarkably resilient, with many species living more than 30 years — highly unusual for such small mammals.

Plowright and other bat scientists believe evolutionary tweaks that help bats recover from the stress of flying also give them extra protection against pathogens.

“Bats seem to have evolved a collateral benefit of flight — resistance to deal with some of the nastiest viruses known to science,” said Arinjay Banerjee, a virologist at McMaster University in Canada.

While scientists are still untangling the mystery, two leading theories are that bats may have evolved what Banerjee called “an efficient DNA repair mechanism" or that their bodies may tightly regulate inflammation triggers and not overreact to viral infections.

Probing the secrets of bat immune systems may help scientists understand more about when bats do shed viruses, as well as providing hints for possible future medical treatment strategies, he said.

Bats and other animals that carry pathogens don’t innately pose a risk to humans — unless conditions are right for a spillover event. “The virus has to come out of the host for us to get infected,” said Cara Brook, a disease ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

The bad news: Increasing destruction and fragmentation of habitats worldwide — especially biodiverse areas like tropical forests — means “we are seeing higher rates of contact between wildlife and humans, creating more opportunities for spillover,” she said.

That’s why the Brazilian researchers chose Pedra Branca park. As one of the world’s largest forests within an urban area, it offers a constant interaction of wild animals with the thousands of humans and domestic animals in surrounding communities. The scientists are studying not just bats, but also small primates, wild cats and domestic cats in homes with confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Video: Scientists study bats to prevent next pandemic (The Canadian Press)

Scientists and governments would stand a better chance at containing future outbreaks if they had faster notice of when and where they begin, said Ian Mackay, a virologist at Australia’s University of Queensland.

“Ongoing, constant, nonstop surveillance,” along the lines of the flu labs set up by the World Health Organization across the globe, could help researchers be better prepared, he said. He also suggested that labs for virus discovery could regularly sample waste water or materials from hospitals.

In India, a National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-Being has been pending since 2018 and will likely be launched next year. Abi Tamim Vanak, a conservation scientist at Ashok Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment in Bengaluru, said that a core part of the plan is to set up 25 sentinel surveillance sites across the country in both rural and urban areas.

“They will be the first line of defence,” he said.

A varied patchwork of virus surveillance programs exists in several countries, but funding tends to wax and wane with the political climate and sense of urgency.

Among the most ambitious endeavours is the Global Virome Project, which aims to discover 500,000 new viruses over 10 years.

The U.S. Agency for International Development recently announced the launch of the $100 million STOP Spillover project, an effort led by scientists at Tufts University and including global partners to study zoonotic diseases in Africa and Asia.

One approach that won’t help, scientists say, is treating bats as the enemy – vilifying them, throwing stones or trying to burn them out of caves.

This spring, villagers in the Indian state of Rajasthan identified bat colonies in abandoned forts and palaces and killed hundreds with bats and sticks. They also sealed some crevices where the bats lived, effectively trapping them. In the Indian state of Karnataka, villagers cut down old trees where bats tend to roost.

Scientists say those those tactics are likely to backfire.

An investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Ugandan health authorities found that, after a mining operation attempted to exterminate bats from a cave in Uganda, the remaining bats exhibited higher infection levels of Marburg virus. This led to Uganda’s most severe outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever, caused by the virus, in 2012.

“Stress is a huge factor in upsetting the natural balance that bats have with their viruses — the more you stress bats, the more they shed viruses,” said Vikram Misra, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Although orders issued by Indian forest officials reiterating the complete ban on killing of wildlife and information campaigns to dispel myths were largely successful, convincing people not to attack bats means dispelling long-running cultural assumptions.

“People have a lot of misconceptions about bats. They’re nocturnal and look a little weird flying, and there’s a lot of literature and culture built around bats being scary,” said Hannah Kim Frank, a biologist at Tulane University. “But bats aren’t aggressive — and attacking bats doesn’t help control diseases.”

Bats also play vital roles in ecosystems: They consume insects like mosquitos, pollinate plants like agave, and disperse seeds.

“We actually need bats in the wild to consume insects that otherwise destroy cotton, corn and pecan harvests,” said Kristen Lear, an ecologist at Bat Conservational International.

A better approach to minimize disease risk, Frank said, is simply to minimize contact between wild bats and people and livestock.

She suggested that research on when bats migrate, and when new pups are born, could inform decisions about when people should avoid certain areas or keep their livestock penned up.

In North America, some scientists advocate restricting public access to caves where bats roost.

“Cave gating — bat-friendly gates, built with iron crossbars — can keep humans out and allow bats to move freely,” said Kate Langwig, an infectious disease ecologist at Virginia Tech. “If we leave the bats alone, and don’t try to hurt or exterminate them, they are going to be healthier."

Perhaps the most significant factor bringing bats into more frequent contact with people and domestic animals is the destruction of habitat, which forces bats to seek out new foraging and roosting grounds.

In Australia, widespread destruction of winter flowering eucalyptus trees that provide nectar for fruit bats — known locally as “flying foxes” — prompted the bats to move into areas closer to human settlements looking for alternate meals, including to a suburb of Brisbane called Hendra.

There, the bats transmitted a virus to horses, which in turn infected people. First identified in 1994 and named Hendra virus, it is highly lethal, killing 60% of people and 75% of horses infected.

A similar chain of events took place in Bangladesh, when habitat destruction drove fruit bats into cities, where they spread Nipah virus, which causes severe encephalitis in humans, by licking date palm sap from collection barrels.

To potentially reverse the movement of bats, Montana State University’s Plowright and colleagues based in Australia are studying restoring the bats’ original habitat.

“Every city in Australia is full of fruit bats that lost their winter habitats,” she said. “The idea is to plant new forests and make sure they are away from places with domestic animals and people.”

Whether the goal is to curb the spread of known zoonotic diseases or to reduce the risk of new ones emerging as pandemics, the strategy is the same: Reduce contact between humans and wild animals.

“In the history of COVID-19, bats have been more victim than victimizer,” said Ricardo Moratelli, co-ordinator of the Fiocruz project in Brazil. “Bats host a large number of parasites, and they deal with these parasites well. The problem is when human beings enter into contact with them.”

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Larson reported from Washington. Silva de Sousa reported from Rio de Janeiro. Ghosal reported from New Delhi.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Christina Larson, Aniruddha Ghosal And Marcelo Silva De Sousa, The Associated Press

PRE-FORDIST ROBBER BARON
Tesla is reportedly shutting down Model S and X production for 18 days, forcing staff to take unplanned, unpaid time off - or they can 'volunteer' in other parts of the business

insider@insider.com (Grace Dean) 

© Provided by Business Insider 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

EBENEZEER MUSK
Tesla is suspending production of two of its Model S and X electric vehicles for 18 days from December 24, according to a Friday staff email seen by CNBC.

Affected staff have to take five unpaid days off work, but Tesla said they could seek limited paid opportunities, or even "volunteer" elsewhere in the business.

OLD FASHIONED SPEED UP ON THE LINE
That same day, CEO Elon Musk emailed staff urging them to ramp up production of the vehicles because of high demand.

Tesla is suspending production of its Model S and Model X vehicles for 18 days from late December, according to an email to factory staff seen by CNBC.

This has left staff forced to take unpaid and unplanned time off work - and Tesla has said they can "volunteer" in other areas of the business, CNBC reported.

Production at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory will cease on December 24 and resume on January 11, according to an email seen by CNBC.

The staff affected will be given a full week of pay for the compulsory time off, per the email sent on Friday, alongside some paid holiday days.

But this leaves five days that staff will have to take off work unpaid and unplanned.

In the email, Tesla management said there would be "limited paid opportunities" for staff to work in other parts of the company during this time. Otherwise, staff can "volunteer" in the deliveries, or sales, side of the business, it said, per CNBC.

"The SX lines will be shut down for the holidays starting Dec. 24th and returning Jan. 11th," Tesla said in the email, transcribed in full by CNBC.

"We would like you to take the opportunity to refresh or spend time with your family, so Tesla will be giving you a full week pay for the week of Jan. 4th," it continued.

"There will also be limited paid opportunities for you to support other shops or volunteer for deliveries during some of this time."

Business Insider has contacted Tesla for comment.

Read more: Elon Musk's move to Texas is a publicity stunt that reveals how Tesla is maturing as an automaker

In a separate email to staff, also on Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that demand is "quite a bit higher than production this quarter" as he urged employees to ramp up production as much as possible for the rest of 2020, per CNBC.

Sales of Tesla's Model S and X vehicles totalled 15,200 in the quarter to late September, compared to 124,100 for its Model 3 and Y vehicles.

News of the temporary shutdown follows a string of problems with both vehicles for the automaker.

In late November, Tesla recalled more than 9,000 Model X cars over a cosmetic adhesive that could fly off. This was after it recalled 15,000 Model X's over power-steering issues and 30,000 S and X cars over suspension problems in October.