It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, December 17, 2020
New Zealand sex worker gets six figure settlement in sexual harassment case
New Zealand Prostitutes Collective Dame Catherine Healy calls the case a milestone as she warned brothel operators to uphold labour rights.
A sex worker in New Zealand will receive a six-figure payout as a settlement after filing a sexual harassment case against a business owner. The sex worker had initially filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission but the case was unresolved. She turned to the Office of the Human Rights Proceedings which took the case to the Human Rights Tribunal before the case was heard and had finally come to a settlement on Monday.
In a statement from Human rights director Michael Timmins, the agreed settlement was substantial and hopefully would serve as a benchmark for future cases.
"With the #MeToo era, more and more complaints of sexual harassment are being brought forward. It's good that people are coming forward with these complaints but it's also a stain that this is acceptable conduct in businesses up and down the country", Timmins said.
He added that the settlement is a reminder to businesses across the country that under the Human Rights Act, all workers, regardless of the type of work they do, have a right to do their job without having to worry about sexual harassment in their workplace. Anyone who feels they have been sexually harassed should consider raising a complaint to the Human Rights Commission.
The current ceiling for sexual harassment settlement is about $25,000 for damages. However, Timmins said they settled for a six-figure sum to show the seriousness of the matter as the case paved an avenue to force change in a way that reflected the true cost of harassment.
Although, most sexual harassment cases have non-disclosure agreements, the office wanted to make sure there was some form of public transparency as with agreed statements. The identities of those involved in the case as well as other information remain confidential.
In an article from the BBC, sex rights and national coordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, Dame Catherine Healy calls the case a milestone as she warned brothel operators to uphold labour rights. NOT A MADAME BUT A DAME; ARISTOCRACY.
In 2003, New Zealand passed a law decriminalising sex work. Healy was at the forefront of a long campaign to put this into legislation arguing that doing so would make the profession safer for both workers and clients.
The collective was crucial help in drafting the landmark Prostitution Reform Act which allowed brothels to operate as a legitimate business while granting sex workers full employment rights.
There are approximately one million sex workers in the United States, many of whom are more vulnerable than ever due to the coronavirus pandemic Photo: AFP / Emily Kask
Pakistan president approves new anti-rape law
Pakistan is a deeply conservative and patriarchal nation where victims of sexual abuse often are too afraid to speak out.
Pakistan's president on Tuesday approved a new anti-rape law which will speed up convictions and launch the country's first national sex offenders registry.
The law, which goes into effect immediately but must be ratified by parliament within three months, was prompted by the gang rape of a mother in front of her children on the side of a motorway in September.
The case caused outrage and led to nationwide protests, with activists demanding the government do more to stop violence against women.
Sex crimes such as rape carry social stigma in conservative Pakistan, where victims find it hard to get justice.
"The ordinance will help expedite cases of sexual abuse against women and children," a statement from President Arif Alvi's office said Tuesday.
The new law -- first put forward by Prime Minister Imran Khan -- orders the establishment of special courts to try cases of rape and sexual abuse against women and children which must be completed within four months.
The ordinance prohibits the identification of rape victims and creates a nationwide registry of rape offenders.
It also establishes anti-rape cells across the country for conducting initial investigations, and medical examinations within six hours of filing a police complaint.
A demonstrator holds a placard next to others during a protest against an alleged gang rape of a woman, in Karachi, Pakistan on September 18, 2020 Photo: AFP / Asif HASSAN The law will also abolish an invasive medical examination known as the two-finger virginity test for rape victims. The test involves a medical officer inserting two fingers into a rape victim's vagina to assess her sexual history.
According to data provided by the government this year, 11 rape cases are reported every day in Pakistan, while authorities admit the true figure is much higher.
Pakistan is a deeply conservative and patriarchal nation where victims of sexual abuse often are too afraid to speak out, or where criminal complaints are frequently not investigated seriously.
Following the motorway rape, a police official seemed to blame the victim because she was driving at night without a male companion.
The prime minister later called for the chemical castration of rapists, which involves using drugs to reduce a person's libido.
kf/ecl/dw
Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.
China Has A Theory About Its New COVID-19 Cases. Many Scientists Are Skeptical
CHINA AGREES WITH TRUMP
COVID CAME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE
Taking swab samples from agricultural products at the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing. ZHANG CHENLIN / XINHUA NEWS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
Originally published on December 16, 2020
China now reports few to none domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases — only 12 cases were reported on Dec. 15.
But a flurry of recent cases has Chinese public health officials worried. They claim that the cases stemmed from workers who had contact with imported food and packages.
Beijing has now banned nearly 100 suppliers from 20 countries and at one point recommended travel restrictions in at least two cities where frozen food handlers contracted the coronavirus.
There's a problem with this theory. The cases directly contradict international health guidance, which says such transmission is highly unlikely. Emanuel Goldman, a microbiologist at Rutgers University's New Jersey Medical School, wrote in the Lancet this summer that "the chance of transmission through inanimate surfaces is very small," adding that objects not "in contact with an infected carrier for many hours do not pose a measurable risk of transmission in non-hospital settings." Since then, Goldman told NPR that moreresearch has come out to corroborate his claim.
What is going on? Here's what we know about the subject of transmission via fomites — objects contaminated with viral particles.
Is it possible to contract COVID-19 from touching food packaging?
"There is a theoretical possibility of catching the virus that way," says Professor Goldman of Rutgers. "It's not impossible."
But, he emphasizes, "It's unlikely."
"I think most scientists would agree with that," he says.
Why so unlikely? First, you'd have to touch a freshly contaminated surface, Goldman explains. Like a doorknob. Or food packaging.
Then, "you have to touch your face" without having washed your hands. And specifically, the mouth, nostrils or eyes — the entry points for the virus.
The World Health Organization uses the phrase "highly unlikely" to describe the chances of contamination from food packaging — but with an abundance of caution urges that the food industry "reinforce personal hygiene measures" for employees.
China concurs.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said there is a "very low risk" of infection from frozen foods.
But it doesn't agree 100%. China's CDC claims that it has identified one case in which live viruses were carried into China via the cold surfaces of imported items and later infected workers. The organization warned workers handling foods stored in refrigerated conditions that they are at "a relatively high risk" of getting the coronavirus and should increase their efforts to protect themselves.
What's the science behind China's claim that people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 by touching contaminated objects?
China has reported at least four clusters of cases since this summer that it attributes to virus-contaminated objects that have traveled from virus-stricken countries and regions.
In November, Shanghai health authorities stated that seven cases were linked to the city's Pudong International Airport. They claim that the source is a shipping container from North America, which two of the seven patients entered to clean without masks. The other five infected individuals include those who also worked in the airport freight section as well as their spouses.
The port city of Tianjin also identified two new COVID-19 patients earlier that same month. A Tianjin CDC official, Zhang Ying, said both individuals, a warehouse loader and a truck driver, had been in physical contact with a shipment of hog heads from North America. According to CCTV footage, officials said the truck driver, not wearing any personal protective equipment, picked up a hog head when it fell out of the warehouse.
The frozen meat and its package have yet to be tested to this day, but Zhang said samples taken from the spot where the pig head fell on the ground came back positive for the coronavirus. There was also a genetic match to the samples taken from the two patients.
The biggest cluster of cases that Chinese researchers are linking to fomite transmission came in June. More than 300 people connected to the Xinfadi Agricultural Wholesale Market, a sprawling facility that supplies 90% of all fruits and vegetables in Beijing, became ill.
Investigators took 1,900 samples from various places in the market. They reported that about 40 came back positive for the coronavirus, including a sample from a cutting board used to chop salmon. Overnight, salmon of all sorts was dumped from supermarkets and restaurants out of fear that consuming salmon may lead to infection — despite expert guidance that salmon cannot be infected and then pass the virus on to humans who eat its meat.
The exact origin of the Xinfadi cluster is still unclear. But a team of Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University, the Beijing CDC, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences jointly published a study in October positing that based on genome sequencing results, this particular strain of the virus has European origins. They concluded that the source of the Xinfadi cases was likely "imported food via cold-chain logistics." And while the same researchers concede that it is not clear whether the amount of virus found in the sample from the salmon cutting board was enough to infect a person, "the risk from food and environment contamination exists."
Goldman isn't convinced. He points out that the Xinfadi study found only viral RNA, or genetic remnants of the virus. That would only indicate that the coronavirus was present on the surface some time prior to testing. A test for live viruses, on the other hand, would strengthen the case for fomite transmission.
"The virus is fragile. It does not survive very well outside the human body," Goldman explains. "Without a test for infectious virus, it doesn't really tell you anything."
But in one instance, the Chinese CDC claimed to have done precisely that. A small cluster of COVID-19 cases was discovered in the port city of Qingdao in early October. Health officials traced the source to two dock workers being treated at a local hospital for the virus after unloading frozen imported codfish in September. Subsequent testing in October by the Chinese CDC found live coronavirus samples on the packaging. "Being able to isolate live viruses [from samples] this time means there must exist living viruses that spread and infect," said Gao Fu, director of the Chinese CDC, during an Oct. 17 press conference.
The following month, a team of researchers, including Gao, published its findings in Biosafety and Health, a peer-review journal managed by the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention and the Chinese CDC. When 421 surface samples were taken for codfish packages, 50 tested positive for viral RNA, and only one later proved to be infectious.
"I don't think this changes anything for ordinary folks in the real world, who will not be dealing with imported frozen packaging directly upon receipt of shipment. All the other tests the Chinese have done further downstream after receipt of imported packages have been negative for live virus," Goldman told NPR after reviewing the article. "This paper is kind of like a proof of principle. Yes, [fomite transmission] could happen, but it's still very rare."
What has China done to prevent fomite transmission?
The State Council has already suspended imports from nearly 100 suppliers in 20 countries where outbreaks were reported among factory workers. It also issued nationwide regulations stipulating that all imported foods that require cold storage, as well as their storage facilities, be thoroughly disinfected before the products are unloaded and handled by movers. All goods must also be tested for the coronavirus upon arrival at the port of entry.
So far, among the 873,475 samples customs officials have swabbed from imported products, 13 have tested positive for viral RNA.
The measures have created private furor among diplomats and importers, who dispute that their food products are spreading the coronavirus.
Reuters reported that behind a closed-door WTO meeting in November, China's major trade partners such as Canada pushed China to stop its stringent testing regiment, at least not without demonstrating a science-based explanation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it also prodded China on two occasions to match its trade restrictions with an accurate assessment of risk, adding that Beijing's most recent COVID-19 trade regulations "are not based on science and threaten to disrupt trade."
So far, China has remained steadfast in upholding its policies, which it argues are rooted in science and designed to "protect people's lives to the maximum extent."
US visa policy: Visitors from developing nations to pay thousands in bonds The bonds will not affect students or travelers from fellow developed countries who are exempt from visas to enter the United States.
The United States will temporarily require visitors from Iran, Myanmar and a number of African nations to pay up to $15,000 in visa bonds in a new hardline immigration measure enacted late in Donald Trump's presidency.
The rule takes effect December 24 for a duration of six months, although it remains to be seen if it will be maintained by President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20 and has promised to be more welcoming to the rest of the world.
The pilot program is designed to make up the costs to the US government of deporting foreigners who overstay their visas, according to a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register by Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs.
Visitors on "B" visas, which are issued for short-term business and tourism, will be asked to pay up to $15,000, which will be forfeited to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency if they do not prove that they have left on time.
The rule will apply to citizens of 23 countries that, according to the declaration, have overstay rates of more than 10 percent.
Most of the countries are in Africa, including Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Protesters gather at the Los Angeles International Airport in January 2017 after US President Donald Trump restricts visits by citizens of several Muslim-majority nations
Photo: GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / JUSTIN SULLIVAN
Other nations on the list include Iran, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Bhutan. Trump has already sharply curtailed travel from Iran -- part of his "Muslim ban" promised during his 2016 campaign, which Biden plans to rescind
The bonds will not affect students or travelers from fellow developed countries who are exempt from visas to enter the United States.
Contrary to the general practice for changes to immigration rules, the Trump administration launched the bonds abruptly without a period for public comment and review.
The State Department official defended the streamlined timeframe by saying that the issue was a matter of conducting foreign relations and hence not subject to the usual process.
"The Pilot Program is being studied as a potential diplomatic tool to encourage foreign governments to take all appropriate actions to ensure that their nationals timely depart the United States after making temporary visits," Risch's filing said.
The justification is at odds with the summary in the same filing which said the program was meant to reduce the burden to the US government and "does not aim to assess whether issuing visa bonds will be effective in reducing the number of aliens who overstay."
Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.
THIRD WORLD USA
Millions of Americans face eviction amid COVID-19: 'I have no idea what to do.'
Emerging COVID-19 relief package must include accessible emergency rental assistance and a uniform, enforceable eviction ban. Suzette Hackney USA TODAY
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, single mother Alora Manny was working third shift at an Amazon fulfillment center in Phoenix. Though she had a two-hour commute by bus, she was able to support her three children and pay the $1,248 in monthly rent for her one-bedroom apartment near downtown.
Manny, 31, loved her job and earned $1,200 to $1,500 per week, often picking up extra hours. But when Phoenix implemented passenger limits on public transportation to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Manny's two-hour commute turned into a four-hour journey some days. She would wait at the bus stop, only to watch the shuttles drive past her because they were at capacity. After arriving late to work a fifth time, Manny lost her job.
She fell behind on bills and was unable to pay rent in August. Desperate for help, Manny reached out to social services organizations that told her not to panic because a nationwide moratorium on evictions would serve as a lifeline. She submitted a sworn affidavit stating she had lost her income and presented it to her landlord. A few weeks later in September, deputies were at her door. They said: "You have to go."
"I kept getting eviction notices on my door," Manny told me. "I filled out all of my paperwork. I did what I was told to do. To end up homeless is so devastating; I've never been in this situation before. I really wasn't even given a chance."
Manny and her children, Amelia, 13, Audrina, 12, and Robert Jr., 3, are now bouncing around from cheap motels to friends' couches because emergency shelters are overflowing with others in need. They are trying to survive on her unemployment benefits: $218 per week.
Millions of Americans like Manny are falling through the cracks during this pandemic-induced financial and housing crisis. And we haven't seen the worst of it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's eviction moratorium, which went in effect in September, protects renters who have been unable to meet their monthly payments from being tossed on the street. It is set to expire Dec. 31.
An estimated 12.4 million adult renters say they are behind on payments, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau survey. And nearly 83 million adults report they are finding it somewhat difficult or very difficult to cover their household expenses such as food, rent or mortgages and car payments.
All told, an estimated 30 to 40 million Americans could be at risk of residential eviction in January because they are unable to pay their rent, according to an analysis by the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan policy think tank. America is failing the backbone of this nation: its people
.
Eviction moratoriums are not enough, though Congress must push to extend the CDC's beyond the end of the year. The wealth gap is quickly becoming a chasm as Americans continue to die by the thousands even as the stock market reaches new heights. Any new coronavirus rescue package must include accessible emergency rental assistance and a uniform, enforceable eviction ban that will remain in effect until a high percentage of the population is vaccinated and the transmission of the virus slows.
"I don't know how I'm going to get through this," Manny said. "I have no idea what to do." Struggling to make ends meet
Americans with the lowest-income households — low-wage and essential workers — also tend to be people of color. They have already been ravaged by COVID-19, experiencing higher infection and death rates. Women and communities of color also are disproportionately more likely to owe back rent, according to Census data, including about 29% of Black families and 17% of Latino tenants.
The numbers are as astonishing as they are unmanageable for many Americans, those who were struggling to make ends meet prior to the pandemic. In an August report, Moody’s Analytics estimated that 12.8 million Americans would be behind an average of $5,400 in rent, and that debt could balloon to nearly $70 billion by the end of the year. Rent moratoriums do not forgive or reduce payments. When the system works, the immediate threat of eviction is simply delayed.
But many landlords are suffering, too. We often envision monolith corporations charging thousands of dollars for efficiency apartments around the country as the enemy. In reality, more than half of all rental properties are single-family homes, often owned by mom-and-pop landlords. Mortgages and property taxes still need to be paid, as does maintenance and sometimes utilities. As Congress continues its down-to-the-wire negotiations, landlord financial assistance should also be on the table.
Monica Delancy, a renters' rights advocate who helps residents in Georgia's Cobb County, said many families she works with are ineligible for local assistance because they must be able to prove that they will be able to pay rent in arrears — people whose work hours have already been reduced and serve as the primary caregiver to children who are learning virtually at home due to COVID-19. She's working with dozens of families to try to help them negotiate payment plans with their landlords.
"You cannot pay $1,000 a month in rent plus what you already owe on $10 or less an hour," Delancy, founder and executive director of We Thrive in Riverside Renters Association. "Right now, we know that on Jan. 1 the landlord can go to the court and ask for the eviction writs to be served, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Forced evictions are traumatic. We're at the point now where we're just asking for the tenants to have some notice so they can start packing. We want to avoid someone having a padlock put on their door or their stuff put out on the curb. Give them 48 hours before the sheriff comes to gather their personal belongs and get it in storage. We want these people to be able to move with decency."
Some states and legal aid providers, including Texas and New York, have launched online portals to help residents understand the eviction process and inform them of their rights. Other organizations have turned to social media to reach as many people as possible during this housing crisis.
Hannah Adams, a staff attorney for Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, which represents tenants during evictions in 22 parishes across the New Orleans area, held a virtual session on Facebook for those seeking information. As I watched, I couldn't help but cry. Is this really where we are as a country?
“People are really, really struggling right now," Adams said during the live broadcast. "A lot of people are not back to work. A lot of people are relying on the expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government that ended at the end of July. I know many, many people who are getting 100 bucks a week from unemployment right now and that’s it. So obviously that is not enough to live on, let alone pay rent, and unfortunately it doesn’t appear that this pandemic is ending anytime soon."
Few people could have anticipated the tremendous financial fallout spurred by COVID-19. But as it continues to cripple tens of millions of Americans, Congress must step up. In our lifetimes, we have never experienced an economic and public health crisis like this one. A wave of homelessness like we've never seen is imminent.
America is failing its people. It doesn't have to be this way.
More than 370 figures from the world's main religions have signed the declaration, which also calls for an end to violence against and the criminalization of LGBT+ people, according to a press release published Wednesday.
The declaration marks the launch of the Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives, backed by key figures from 35 countries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen and former Irish President Mary McAleese.
So-called conversion therapies, also known as reparative treatments, rely on the assumption that sexual orientation can be changed or "cured" -- an idea discredited by major medical associations in the UK, the United States and elsewhere.
However they remain legal in many countries, including the UK, despite the country's current government committing to end the practice.
In July 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he would fast-track these plans, and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office funded an online conference marking the launch of the commission Wednesday.
Jayne Ozanne, director of the Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives, said the declaration is a landmark.
"We've never had such a powerful, clear and supportive statement from so many leaders," Ozanne told CNN.
She called on politicians to act to ban conversion therapy.
Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth was a keynote speaker at Wednesday's event.
"I do not think that any government can be deaf to the cries of survivors," she said, adding that people are still being traumatized while politicians dally.
"We need to act with some urgency," Ozanne said.
Campaigners also released a video of the declaration, featuring senior religious leaders such as the Right Reverend Paul Bayes, the Bishop of Liverpool.
"For too long, religious teachings have been misused -- and are still being misused -- to cause deep pain and offence to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex," said Bayes in the press release.
The commission "aims to provide a strong and authoritative voice amongst those who wish to affirm the sanctity of life and the dignity of all," he added.
The commission "aims to provide a strong and authoritative voice amongst those who wish to affirm the sanctity of life and the dignity of all," he added.
The declaration asks for forgiveness for the harm that some religious teachings have caused LGBT+ people and calls for everyone to "celebrate inclusivity and the extraordinary gift of our diversity."
Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, was one of the speakers at Wednesday's conference.
"There are many LGBT+ people who suffer emotional hurt and physical violence to the point of death in countries across the world," she said in the press release.
"For this reason, we are joining forces as faith leaders to say that we are all beloved children of God."
Malta -- a tiny island nation in the Mediterranean with a population of just over 400,000 -- made history by implementing a nationwide ban on conversion therapy in 2016.
And in May, Germany's parliament approved a ban on conversion therapies for minors, and for adults who have been forced, threatened or deceived to undergo the controversial treatment.
However, in April the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) and the Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) said conversion therapies are still used in more than 69 countries.
The organizations called for a global ban on the practice, which they classify as a form of torture.
In June, the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, also called for a global ban on the practice.
CNN's Rob Picheta contributed to this report.
Two bears will be last animals to leave notorious zoo where Cher's elephant was rescued from Suzie and Bubaloo are in poor health but will soon have a new home
in Jordan.
Wednesday 16 December 2020
VIDEO Last animals to leave Islamabad zoo Two unwell bears are set to be removed from a zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, and transported to a new home in Jordan.
Two unwell Himalayan brown bears will be the last animals to leave a notorious Pakistan zoo where "the world's loneliest elephant" was relocated from last month.
Suzie and Bubaloo were due to be airlifted from Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad.
The pair, who were badly neglected and kept separately in cramped conditions, are destined for a new home in Jordan.
They will be the final two animals to leave the zoo before it shuts down, following a ruling by the Islamabad High Court earlier this year.
Bubaloo is pictured inside his enclosure before flying to Jordan
Its squalid conditions sparked international outrage and caught the attention of singer Cher, who campaigned for the release of one of its residents - Kaavan - dubbed the world's loneliest elephant.
He is now settling into life in a sanctuary in Cambodia and has been filmed making contact with another elephant for the first time in eight years.
The two bears, both 17-years-old, will live in a sanctuary 3,330ft above sea level, where the cold and snowy conditions will be much closer to their natural habitat.
Dr Amir Khalil is pictured with Bubaloo the bear
They will be making their way there with the help of the Princess Alia Foundation, which is headed by the eldest daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan.
Both are in poor health, with Bubaloo suffering an abscessed tooth and Suzie severely malnourished and missing all her teeth.
They used to work as "dancing bears", a practice common in Pakistan.
It sees bear cubs forced to stand on a hot plate with their paws protected only by Vaseline.
Kavaan the elephant left the same zoo for Cambodia last month
As they move their feet up and down to avoid the heat, it appears as though they are dancing.
Dr Amir Khalil, of Four Paws International, the global welfare group which has been caring for Marghazar's sick animals, said: "Sadly this continues until this day not just in Pakistan."
He said the pair have "serious health problems" but a "really wonderful nature".
Giving an update on Kavaan the elephant, he added: "The last video I saw Kaavan was taking food from the other female elephant.
"So I see really Kaavan is improving, (but) still a long trip for him to learn how to be a wild elephant."
Exxon is slashing workers and cutting costs as a hobbled oil market slowly recovers.
Here's everything we know.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods
Mark Schiefelbein/Getty; Skye Gould/Business Insider
Exxon is cutting costs and shrinking its workforce to stay afloat amid the worst oil downturn in a generation.
Here's everything we know about the cuts, from layoffs to reduced employee benefits.
Exxon Mobil, the nation's largest oil company, is losing money like never before. For the first time on record, the firm reported a loss three quarters in a row, from January through September. Analysts expect the company to lose money in the last three months of 2020, as well, according to Bloomberg data.
The obvious culprit is the coronavirus, which sapped demand for gasoline and jet fuel, causing the price of oil to plummet. But Exxon's market value began falling years before the pandemic, driven down in part by souring investor interest in fossil fuels.
Now down in market value more than 35% from the start of the year, Exxon is cutting costs. The result is big headcount reductions and other measures. Here's everything we know so far.
As Business Insider first reported, Exxon is slashing its global workforce by 15%, or 14,000 people, through 2022, relative to the company's headcount in 2019. The cuts include both contractors and employees.
Exxon also said it would lay off about 300 workers in Canada, starting in December, according to a public press release and an internal memo we obtained. The cuts are involuntary and most of them will take place by February of 2021, per the memo.
In addition, the company launched a voluntary redundancy program in Australia. It's not clear how many roles the program will impact.
Part of Exxon's approach to shrinking spending is sending jobs overseas to cheap centers of labor, we reported
Leaked audio from an internal meeting suggests not all employees placed in that category were, in fact, poor performers. That's why workers we spoke to called the change to the ranking system a layoff in disguise.
Exxon's performance-based cuts, initiated this summer, put as much as 10% of the company's workforce at risk of losing their jobs. You can find all the details of the ranking system and the April change here.
The government of Singapore is probing Exxon's labor practices after employees raised concerns about the company's performance-based cuts.
Other changes to curb spending
Exxon has said publicly that it began restructuring years before the pandemic drove down the price of oil, in part, to curb spending. In the last few months, however, the firm has made a handful of other changes to cut costs.
Earlier this year the company slashed its capital spending budget for 2020 by $10 billion, or 30%, down to $23 billion. Next year Exxon plans to spend even less.
What we're watching
The job cuts Exxon has announced so far were determined by workforce reviews Exxon has been carrying out on a country-by-country basis. The company could announce results from additional reviews soon.
While Exxon has curbed spending, the firm's "dividend sustainability remains challenged absent higher commodity prices," Morgan Stanley said in early November. We'll be keeping an eye on the dividend.
Exxon is placing a huge bet on Guyana, a small South American country with big oil resources. Expect continued focus there (partly because oil production is cheap).
The company will likely report fourth-quarter earnings in late January. Investors will be watching to see the scale of loss that it reports for the full year.
This story was originally published on November 6. We updated it to include new information on cuts to the firm's workforce and budget.
Ancient DNA continues to rewrite corn's 9,000-year
society-shaping history
Three 2,000-year-old cobs in Honduras show that people brought corn varieties back to Mesoamerica, possibly sparking productivity and shaping civilization
IMAGE: THREE ROUGHLY 2,000-YEAR-OLD CORN COBS FROM THE EL GIGANTE ROCK SHELTER SITE IN HONDURAS. THESE CORN COBS WERE GENETICALLY ANALYZED BY AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF SCIENTISTS. IN THE DEC. 14 ISSUE... view more
CREDIT: THOMAS HARPER
Some 9,000 years ago, corn as it is known today did not exist. Ancient peoples in southwestern Mexico encountered a wild grass called teosinte that offered ears smaller than a pinky finger with just a handful of stony kernels. But by stroke of genius or necessity, these Indigenous cultivators saw potential in the grain, adding it to their diets and putting it on a path to become a domesticated crop that now feeds billions.
Despite how vital corn, or maize, is to modern life, holes remain in the understanding of its journey through space and time. Now, a team co-led by Smithsonian researchers have used ancient DNA to fill in a few of those gaps.
A new study, which reveals details of corn's 9,000-year history, is a prime example of the ways that basic research into ancient DNA can yield insights into human history that would otherwise be inaccessible, said co-lead author Logan Kistler, curator of archaeogenomics and archaeobotany at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
"Domestication--the evolution of wild plants over thousands of years into the crops that feed us today--is arguably the most significant process in human history, and maize is one of the most important crops currently grown on the planet," Kistler said. "Understanding more about the evolutionary and cultural context of domestication can give us valuable information about this food we rely on so completely and its role in shaping civilization as we know it."
In the Dec. 14 issue of the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kistler and an international team of collaborators report the fully sequenced genomes of three roughly 2,000-year-old cobs from the El Gigante rock shelter in Honduras. Analysis of the three genomes reveals that these millennia-old varieties of Central American corn had South American ancestry and adds a new chapter in an emerging complex story of corn's domestication history.
"We show that humans were carrying maize from South America back towards the domestication center in Mexico," Kistler said. "This would have provided an infusion of genetic diversity that may have added resilience or increased productivity. It also underscores that the process of domestication and crop improvement doesn't just travel in a straight line."
Humans first started selectively breeding corn's wild ancestor teosinte around 9,000 years ago in Mexico, but partially domesticated varieties of the crop did not reach the rest of Central and South America for another 1,500 and 2,000 years, respectively.
For many years, conventional thinking among scholars had been that corn was first fully domesticated in Mexico and then spread elsewhere. However, after 5,000-year-old cobs found in Mexico turned out to only be partially domesticated, scholars began to reconsider whether this thinking captured the full story of corn's domestication.
Then, in a landmark 2018 study led by Kistler, scientists used ancient DNA to show that while teosinte's first steps toward domestication occurred in Mexico, the process had not yet been completed when people first began carrying it south to Central and South America. In each of these three regions, the process of domestication and crop improvement moved in parallel but at different speeds.
In an earlier effort to hone in on the details of this richer and more complex domestication story, a team of scientists including Kistler found that 4,300-year-old corn remnants from the Central American El Gigante rock shelter site had come from a fully domesticated and highly productive variety.
Surprised to find fully domesticated corn at El Gigante coexisting in a region not far from where partially domesticated corn had been discovered in Mexico, Kistler and project co-lead Douglas Kennett, an anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, teamed up to genetically determine where the El Gigante corn originated.
"El Gigante rock shelter is remarkable because it contains well-preserved plant remains spanning the last 11,000 years," Kennett said. "Over 10,000 maize remains, from whole cobs to fragmentary stalks and leaves, have been identified. Many of these remains date late in time, but through an extensive radiocarbon study, we were able to identify some remains dating to as early as 4,300 years ago."
They searched the archaeological strata surrounding the El Gigante rock shelter for cobs, kernels or anything else that might yield genetic material, and the team started working toward sequencing some of the site's 4,300-year-old corn samples--the oldest traces of the crop at El Gigante.
Over two years, the team attempted to sequence 30 samples, but only three were of suitable quality to sequence a full genome. The three viable samples all came from the more recent layer of the rock shelter's occupation--carbon dated between 2,300 and 1,900 years ago.
With the three sequenced genomes of corn from El Gigante, the researchers analyzed them against a panel of 121 published genomes of various corn varieties, including 12 derived from ancient corn cobs and seeds. The comparison revealed snippets of genetic overlap between the three samples from the Honduran rock shelter and corn varieties from South America.
"The genetic link to South America was subtle but consistent," Kistler said. "We repeated the analysis many times using different methods and sample compositions but kept getting the same result."
Kistler, Kennett and their co-authors at collaborating institutions, including Texas A&M University, Pennsylvania State University as well as the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, hypothesize that the reintroduction of these South American varieties to Central America may have jump-started the development of more productive hybrid varieties in the region.
Though the results only cover the El Gigante corn samples dated to around 2,000 years ago, Kistler said the shape and structure of the cobs from the roughly 4,000-year-old layer suggests they were nearly as productive as those he and his co-authors were able to sequence. To Kistler, this means the blockbuster crop improvement likely occurred before rather than during the intervening 2,000 years or so separating these archaeological layers at El Gigante. The team further hypothesizes that it was the introduction of the South American varieties of corn and their genes, likely at least 4,300 years ago, which may have increased the productivity of the region's corn and the prevalence of corn in the diet of the people who lived in the broader region, as discovered in a recent study led by Kennett.
"We are starting to see a confluence of data from multiple studies in Central America indicating that maize was becoming a more productive staple crop of increasing dietary importance between 4,700 and 4,000 years ago," Kennett said.
Taken together with Kennett's recent study, these latest findings suggest that something momentous may have occurred in the domestication of corn about 4,000 years ago in Central America, and that an injection of genetic diversity from South America may have had something to do with it. This proposed timing also lines up with the appearance of the first settled agricultural communities in Mesoamerica that ultimately gave rise to great civilizations in the Americas, the Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan and the Aztec, though Kistler hastened to point out this idea is still relegated to speculation.
"We can't wait to dig into the details of what exactly happened around the 4,000-year mark," Kistler said. "There are so many archaeological samples of maize which haven't been analyzed genetically. If we started testing more of these samples, we could start to answer these lingering questions about how important this reintroduction of South American varieties was."
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Funding and support for this research were provided by the Smithsonian, National Science Foundation, Pennsylvania State University and the Francis Crick Institute.
An Assortment of Corn Cobs of Varying Ages Found at the El Gigante Rock Shelter Site in Honduras (IMAGE)
An assortment of corn cobs of varying ages found at the El Gigante rock shelter site in Honduras. After scientists first discovered the remnants of a fully domesticated and highly productive variety of 4,300-year-old corn at the El Gigante rock shelter, a team searched the archaeological strata surrounding the site for other cobs, kernels or anything else that might yield genetic material. They also started working toward sequencing some of the site's 4,300-year-old corn samples--the oldest traces of the crop at El Gigante. Over two years, the team attempted to sequence 30 samples, but only three were of suitable quality to sequence a full genome. The three viable samples all came from the more recent layer of the rock shelter's occupation--carbon dated between 2,300 and 1,900 years ago--revealing genetic overlap between the three samples from the Honduran rock shelter and corn varieties from South America. In the Dec. 14 issue of the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Logan Kistler, curator of archaeogenomics and archaeobotany at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and an international team of collaborators report the fully sequenced genomes of three roughly 2,000-year-old cobs from the El Gigante rock shelter in Honduras. Analysis of the three genomes reveals that these millennia-old varieties of Central American corn had South American ancestry and adds a new chapter in an emerging complex story of corn's domestication history.
CAPTION
An assortment of corn cobs of varying ages found at the El Gigante rock shelter site in Honduras. After scientists first discovered the remnants of a fully domesticated and highly productive variety of 4,300-year-old corn at the El Gigante rock shelter, a team searched the archaeological strata surrounding the site for other cobs, kernels or anything else that might yield genetic material. They also started working toward sequencing some of the site's 4,300-year-old corn samples--the oldest traces of the crop at El Gigante. Over two years, the team attempted to sequence 30 samples, but only three were of suitable quality to sequence a full genome. The three viable samples all came from the more recent layer of the rock shelter's occupation--carbon dated between 2,300 and 1,900 years ago--revealing genetic overlap between the three samples from the Honduran rock shelter and corn varieties from South America. In the Dec. 14 issue of the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Logan Kistler, curator of archaeogenomics and archaeobotany at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and an international team of collaborators report the fully sequenced genomes of three roughly 2,000-year-old cobs from the El Gigante rock shelter in Honduras. Analysis of the three genomes reveals that these millennia-old varieties of Central American corn had South American ancestry and adds a new chapter in an emerging complex story of corn's domestication history.
