Swiss robots use UV light to zap viruses aboard passenger planes

By Arnd Wiegmann and John Miller

© Reuters/ARND WIEGMANN A robot developed by Swiss company UVeya armed with virus-killing ultraviolet light is seen aboard an airplane at Zurich AIrport

ZURICH (Reuters) - A robot armed with virus-killing ultraviolet light is being tested on Swiss airplanes, yet another idea aiming to restore passenger confidence and spare the travel industry more pandemic pain.

UVeya, a Swiss start-up, is conducting the trials of the robots with Dubai-based airport services company Dnata inside Embraer jets from Helvetic Airways, a charter airline owned by Swiss billionaire Martin Ebner.

Aircraft makers still must certify the devices and are studying the impact their UV light may have on interior upholstery, which could fade after many disinfections, UVeya co-founder Jodoc Elmiger said.

Still, he's hopeful robot cleaners could reduce people's fear of flying, even as COVID-19 circulates.

"This is a proven technology, it's been used for over 50 years in hospitals and laboratories, it's very efficient," Elmiger said on Wednesday. "It doesn't leave any trace or residue."

Elmiger's team has built three prototypes so far, one of which he demonstrated inside a Helvetic jet at the Zurich Airport, where traffic plunged 75% last year.

The robot's lights, mounted on a crucifix-shaped frame, cast everything in a soft-blue glow as it slowly moved up the Embraer's aisle. One robot can disinfect a single-aisled plane in 13 minutes, start to finish, though larger planes take longer.

Dnata executives hope airplane makers will sign off on the robots -- Elmiger estimates they'll sell for 15,000 Swiss francs ($15,930) or so -- as governments require new measures to ensure air travellers don't get sick.

"We were looking for a sustainable, and also environmentally friendly solution, to cope with those requests," said Lukas Gyger, Dnata's chief operating officer in Switzerland.

While privately owned Helvetic has not needed bailouts like much of the industry, its business has also been gutted, with its fleet sitting largely silently in hangars. UVeya's UV robots may help change that, said Mehdi Guenin, a Helvetic spokesman.

"If our passengers, if our crew know our aircraft are safe -- that there are no viruses or bacteria -- it could help them to fly again," Guenin said.

($1 = 0.9418 Swiss francs)

(Writing by John Miller, reporting by Arnd Wiegmann in Zurich; Editing by David Gregorio)

 

           WILD PIGS are destroying Canada's natural habitat

A locust plague hit East Africa. The pesticide solution may have dire consequences.

A swarm of locusts is awe inspiring and terrible. It begins as a dark smudge on the horizon, then a gathering darkness. A rustle becomes a clatter that crescendos as tens of millions of voracious, finger-sized, bright yellow insects descend on the land. Since late 2019, vast clouds of locusts have shrouded the Horn of Africa, devouring crops and pastureland—and triggering an operation of staggering proportions to track and kill them

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© Photograph by David Chancellor Seen from the air, at dawn, a swarm of desert locusts begins to move along agricultural land towards the forests of Mount Kenya.

© Photograph by David Chancellor At dusk a swarm of desert locusts gather over acacia tree’s where they roost for the night, Borana Conservancy, northern Kenya

So far, a ground and air spraying campaign over eight East African countries, coordinated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has staved off the worst—the very real prospect that the locusts would destroy the food supply for millions of people. Last year, the operation protected enough pastureland and food stocks, by the FAO’s calculations, to feed 28 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen for an entire year

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© Photograph by David Chancellor Grants gazelle, and Oryx stand amongst a swarm of desert locusts, Borana conservancy, northern Kenya

But progress comes with yet-unknown consequences to the landscape, and responders have sought to find the elusive balance between eradicating the invading pests without destroying foliage and harming insects, wildlife, and humans. Northern Kenya is renowned worldwide for its bee diversity, and farmers and conservationists worry that bees are becoming casualties.

So far, 475,000 gallons (1.8 million liters) of chemical pesticides have been sprayed over 4.35 million acres (1.76 million hectares) at a cost the FAO says is $118 million. The spraying is expected to continue this year.

Assessments of possible environmental damage are incomplete at best, though the effects of pesticides have been well documented for decades in other settings. Broad spectrum pesticides are not only very effective at killing locusts, they also kill bees and other insects. They leach into water systems and can damage human health.

“Of course, there is collateral damage,” says Dino Martins, an entomologist and executive director of the Mpala Research Center in Kenya. “All these chemicals are designed to kill insects and they do so in very large numbers.”

Caught off guard

© Provided by National Geographic SLIDE SHOW

A locust plague hit East Africa. The pesticide solution may have dire consequences. (ms

Kenya had not suffered a major locust invasion in 70 years. When the first swarms arrived in 2019, the country was woefully unprepared for what had been, quite reasonably, regarded as a remote threat.

“They had no equipment, no expertise, no pesticides, no aircraft, no knowledge,” says Keith Cressman, the FAO’s senior locust forecaster.

The swarms began forming in 2018 after cyclones dumped heavy rain on the inhospitable deserts of Arabia, allowing locusts to breed unseen in the wet sands. Strong winds in 2019 blew the growing swarms into Yemen’s inaccessible conflict zones, then across the Red Sea into Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

© Photograph by David Chancellor Desert locusts swarm on the open bush, Lewa conservancy, northern Kenya

In the early stages of the locust control effort Kenya threw everything it had at the problem. “It was a panic reaction,” says James Everts, a Dutch ecotoxicologist specializing in the environmental effects of pesticide use.

The spraying continued even as the COVID-19 pandemic spread and shuttered much of the world. Donning face masks against the coronavirus, hundreds of local volunteers, as well as members of Kenya’s National Youth Service, shouldered knapsack sprayers and, with minimal training, unloaded on the locusts with whatever pesticides happened to be in stock. They sprayed tens of thousands of liters of deltamethrin, as well as hundreds of liters of fipronil, chlorpyrifos, and other insecticides, many of which are banned in Europe and parts of the United States.

© Photograph by David Chancellor Standing in the eye of a swarm of desert locusts, Lewa Conservancy, northern Kenya

In one documented case in the northern region of Samburu, a ground control team sprayed 34 times the recommended dose of pesticide on a patch of ground, killing bees and beetles while spilling pesticide on themselves and crops.

“In the beginning it was an emergency,” says Thecla Mutia, who leads an FAO team monitoring the environmental effects of locust-control efforts in Kenya. “The whole idea was to manage this as fast as possible to ensure food security.”

The FAO says, however, that it did not approve the use of volunteers in the campaign nor the spraying of pesticides not recommended for locust control.
Pesticides banned in Europe and the U.S.

Designed to kill, pesticides are toxic by definition, but they are also blunt weapons. Three of the four chemicals recommended by the FAO and authorized by regional governments—chlorpyrifos, fenitrothion, and malathion—are broad-spectrum organophosphates, widely used pesticides sometimes referred to as “junior-strength nerve agents” because of their kinship to Sarin gas. The other, deltamethrin, is a synthetic pyrethroid, which is especially toxic to bees and fish, though much less so to mammals.

The FAO’s Pesticides Referee Group, which vets pesticides for use in locust control, lists all four chemicals as high risk to bees, low or medium risk to birds, and medium or high risk to locusts’ natural enemies and soil insects, such as ants and termites.

The European Union banned chlorpyrifos early last year, and in the U.S. state bans have been enforced in New York, California, and Hawaii. Fenitrothion, too, is banned in Europe, but permitted in the U.S. and in Australia, where the government deploys it as a central weapon in the fight against locusts.

“We are not hiding what conventional pesticides are,” says Cyril Ferrand, FAO resilience team leader in Nairobi, who points out that doing nothing was not an option in the face of the rapidly expanding swarms. “We want to lower the population of desert locusts in a way that is responsible.”
Non-toxic alternatives

Non-toxic biological alternatives that kill locusts, but do no other harm, have been available for decades. Yet chemical pesticides remain the weapon of choice, accounting for 90 percent of the spraying in the current East Africa campaign.

Biopesticide development began in the late 1980s after the end of a years-long locust plague that stretched from North Africa to India.

“When we saw the figures of the millions of liters of pesticide being sprayed, even the donor community was horrified,” recalls Christiaan Kooyman, a Dutch scientist who developed the biopesticide using a fungus, Metarhizium acridum, that attacks locusts. “And they asked the scientists, ‘Is there nothing else we can do?’”

Metarhizium, which has been on the market since 1998, is recommended by the FAO as the “most appropriate control option” for locusts, yet is rarely used. It is slow acting with a low “knockdown” rate—meaning it kills over days rather than hours. It is expensive and tricky to apply. And it is most effective against immature “hoppers,” rather than the adult swarms that are the greater threat.

Its best feature—that it kills only locusts—also makes it a less profitable product. Companies have little incentive to manufacture metarhizium and go through the costly bureaucratic process of registering it in a country until it is needed—and by then it is too late.

“Locusts aren’t around very much, and manufacturers are not keen on producing something that doesn’t get used,” says Graham Matthews, a British scientist and the founding chair of the Pesticides Referee Group. When the swarms arrive, “you don’t want to wait for production, you want it off-the-shelf,” he adds.

Instead, governments reach for the broad-spectrum toxic chemicals mass-produced by large agrochemical companies.

Extent of harm is unknown

What makes widespread spraying of chemical pesticides especially worrisome to farmers, herders, scientists, and conservationists in Kenya is that so little is known about what, if any, harm the pesticides have done. A U.S. government environmental assessment of the regional locust operation warned of the “potential for significant adverse impacts on environment and human health,” and a review by the World Bank found the environmental risk to be “substantial.”

Yet more than a year into the control campaign, the FAO’s assessment of the environmental impact of the spraying has not been made public.

“The excessive use of pesticides is of course detrimental to biodiversity, but it has not really been quantified as to what the level of impact is,” says Sunday Ekesi, an entomologist and director of research and partnerships at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, part of a government task force set up to tackle the desert locust invasion.

“Our key concern is the impact it has on the pollinators,” says Anne Maina, of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya. The farmers she works with attribute reduced honey and mango harvests to the disappearance of bees. Martins shares these concerns, but says the lack of monitoring information means it is impossible to know what’s really going on.

“Northern Kenya and the greater Horn of Africa is one of the world’s hotspots of bee diversity, with thousands of species, most of which we know absolutely nothing about,” he says. “We need to develop tools that allow us to both control locusts and protect the fragile biodiversity of the region’s drylands.”

The FAO’s 2003 guidelines on safety and environmental precautions acknowledge that aerial spraying may have less impact on human health than ground spraying, but often creates “more environmental concerns” because it risks contaminating ecologically sensitive areas. Aerial spraying increases the potential for “uncontrolled drift,” whereby chemicals—much like the locusts themselves—are blown off course by the wind.

Mutia, the FAO’s team leader for environmental monitoring, insists that ground-spraying teams have become better trained and local communities are better informed about the spraying and the risks to themselves and their livestock. Kenya’s overall locust operation today has improved since the early weeks of the invasion.

“Done right, the environmental impact is very low,” says Cressman.

A key report still under wraps

Still, Mutia’s environment and health monitoring report, finished last September, has yet to be made public. And there is confusion over why. The FAO says the report is for Kenya’s agriculture ministry to release, but a ministry spokeswoman says the FAO has yet to deliver it.

In an interview, Mutia says she found “no cause for alarm,” in her review of the spraying.

However, a copy of the report obtained by National Geographic paints a more detailed and problematic picture, with evidence of heavy overdosing at the Samburu site and widespread lack of communication with residents in sprayed areas.

In four of the 13 sites inspected, there was no sign of locust deaths at all, suggesting either that the spraying had been ineffective or that the monitoring teams weren’t in the right locations. The report says they were repeatedly given inadequate location information and lacked the helicopters and other vehicles required to quickly reach more remote sites.

“Our main concern has been the focus on control of the locusts without a parallel monitoring system of the undesired effects,” says Raphael Wahome, an animal scientist at the University of Nairobi. He says the FAO’s information should be made available to researchers and others: “Your guess is as good as mine as to what is happening wherever [the pesticides] have been used.”

Our Synthetic Environment - The Anarchist Library

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lewis-herber-murray-bookchin... · PDF file

can be discovered and thus controlled.”) With all due respect to genetics and to theories that attribute chronic disease to senescence, it would be more rewarding to examine the changes

Egyptian mummies pass through Cairo in parade worthy of royals

4/3/2021

Nearly a century and a half after entering Egypt labeled as salted fish due to their obscurity, nearly two dozen Egyptian mummies were celebrated in a grand parade in Cairo on Saturday.

VIDEO
Royal mummies pass through Cairo in gala parade

Twenty-two mummies, 18 kings and four queens, were treated as royals as they were conveyed from the 120-year-old Egyptian Museum in Cairo's central Tahrir Square to the newly inaugurated National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in the old Islamic city of Fustat.

Among the mummies were that of Ramses II, a New Kingdom ruler whose reign lasted for 67 years and who signed the world's first-known peace treaty; Hatshepsut, who defied gender norms to become a queen in the 18th dynasty era; and Seqenenra Taa, who is best known for initiating a liberation war against the Hyksos.

© Mahmoud Khaled/AFP via Getty Images

Many of the mummies on display had made an arduous journey to Saturday's parade after being exhumed from the Deir El-Bahari cachette in Luxor's West Bank in 1881.

© Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images The carriages carrying 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies depart from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo's Tahrir Square on April 3, 2021.

They were put on a boat that sailed for three days, all the way from Luxor to Cairo, but their arrival in the capital city did not mark the end of their troubles. At the time, customs inspection in the capital was mandatory and the man in charge was at a loss to find a legal definition for the mummies.


"The customs authority eventually agreed to let them in, but only under a label that they were salted fish," renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass told ABC News.MORE: 'Pharaoh's curse' blamed for Suez Canal blockage, other unfortunate events in Egypt

On Saturday, the contrast could not be starker.

The mummies were placed in hydrogen capsules for protection and carried by specially decorated vehicles, with vintage horse-drawn carriages and men in ancient costumes guiding them, and a drum-beating military band building up excitement.

The mummies had their names inscribed on the sides and front of the vehicles in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Arabic, signaling the start of the procession by moving in chronological order, led by Seqenenra Taa of the 17th dynasty.

Mahmoud Khaled/AFP via Getty Images Performers dressed in ancient Egyptian costume march at the start of the parade of 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies departing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo's Tahrir Square on April 3, 2021

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 Reuters Tv/Reuters A mummy is seen in a video screened during a ceremony of a transfer of Royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, in Cairo, Egypt April 3, 2021.
Historic square

A 19-meter-high Ramses II obelisk surrounded by four sphinxes adorned historic Tahrir Square, which was given a facelift in anticipation of the parade. It had been scheduled to take place last year, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the vehicles moved, they encircled the obelisk and continued their 4.5-km journey to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, their final resting place. Roads were sealed off as the motorcade passed through empty streets before being greeted by a 21-gun salute upon arrival

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© Reuters Tv/Reuters Artists perform near pyramids in a video screened at a ceremony of a transfer of Royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, in Cairo, Egypt April 3, 2021.

The mummies will go on display at a royal hall built to accommodate them. It will open its doors to visitors on April 18.

"This majestic scene is a further proof of the greatness of Egyptian people -- the guardians of this unique civilization that extends into the depths of history," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who welcomed the mummies' arrival at the museum, said on Facebook.

Leaker says they are offering private details of 500 million Facebook users

By Raphael Satter 
4/3/2021

© Reuters/Dado Ruvic The Facebook logo and binary cyber codes are seen in this illustration

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A leaker says they are offering information on more than 500 million Facebook Inc users - including phone numbers and other data - virtually for free.

The database appears to be the same set of Facebook-linked telephone numbers that has been circulating in hacker circles since January and whose existence was first reported by tech publication Motherboard, according to Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock.

Reuters was not immediately able to vet the information, which is being offered for a few euros' worth of digital credit on a well-known site for low-level hackers, but Gal said on Saturday that he had verified the authenticity of at least some of the data by comparing it against phone numbers of people he knew. Other journalists say they have also been able to match known phone numbers to the details in the data dump.

In a statement, Facebook said that the data was "very old" and related to an issue that it had fixed in August 2019.

An attempt by Reuters to reach the leaker over the messaging service Telegram was not immediately successful.

Gal told Reuters that Facebook users should be alert to "social engineering attacks" by people who may have obtained their phone numbers or other private data in the coming months.

News of the latest leak https://www.businessinsider.com/stolen-data-of-533-million-facebook-users-leaked-online-2021-4 was first reported by Business Insider.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington; Additional reporting by Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Daniel Wallis)

Facebook’s response to Saturday’s news of a huge data leak was so awful
Andy Meek BGR

4/3/2021

© Provided by BGR Facebook data leak

Monday was already shaping up to be a lively news day for tech journalists. That’s when the next episode of Sway, the podcast from The New York Times’ Kara Swisher, will be available to listen to, with the new interview subject being none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Swisher on Friday teased via Twitter that the conversation with Cook will cover everything from the App Store drama around Parler to the iPhone maker’s feud with Facebook — the latter of which, on Saturday, inadvertently handed Cook even more ammunition to use against the social networking giant as he continues making his case that Facebook is awful. In case you haven’t heard by now, there’s been another huge Facebook data leak, encompassing personal information from more than 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries. This data was posted in a hacking forum, according to a report from Insider, which is to say — if you have a Facebook account, there’s a good chance your data has once again been exposed to hackers including everything from your phone number to your email address, birthday, full name, and more.

One of the big dangers with a leak like this is that hackers and other malicious actors can use this information to try to access your Facebook account, and frankly any other accounts, now that they have an abundance of information about you. They can try to reset your password, for example, and use that to cause all sorts of other mischief.

On Twitter, Facebook spokesperson Liz Bourgeois responded to a handful of news articles and posts about this leak by tweeting the same two-sentence statement: “This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.”

In other words, Facebook is responsible for a few hundred million users having their data leaked yet again (seriously, how many times is this now?), but don’t worry, it’s fine — they fixed the problem a long time ago. Not that this does anything to help un-leak the data that’s now in hackers hands, but, hey, Facebook did its part!


This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.
— Liz Bourgeois (@Liz_Shepherd) April 3, 2021

Naturally, many people have found that response to be monumentally unsatisfactory.
“Fixed it how?” someone tweeted in response. “Clearly the data is still out there.”
“How do I change my date of birth?” reads another response.

Also, “I’ve had the same email for a decade. Love this dismissive responses.”

And: “You’re head of Communications for @Facebook and this is your response!? How about “we’re deeply sorry for your data being exposed for a second time. Please contact our CS team and we’ll help you restore and protect your account.” Just try harder!”

Needless to say, this is all going to help shine an even bigger light on anything Cook says about Facebook during what promises to be a long and in-depth interview with Swisher on Monday. Here are some of the Facebook-related comments from Cook that Swisher has already shared from the upcoming interview:

“All we’re doing, Kara, is giving the user the choice whether to be tracked or not,” Cook says at one point during the podcast, a reference to the iOS changes that will make it harder for Facebook to hoover up data about what its users are doing around the web. “And I think it’s hard to argue against that. I’ve been — I’ve been shocked that there’s been a pushback on this to this degree.”

And then, when Swisher goes on to ask him how he thinks this might impact Facebook’s bottom line, the Apple CEO lowers the boom. “Yeah, Kara, I’m not focused on Facebook. So I don’t know.”

More from BGR
Facebook is trying to fix one of the worst things about Facebook
India wants Facebook to track every single WhatsApp message
Apple gave iPhone developers a stark warning about trying to secretly track users

Tesla is on a collision course with Germany's biggest union and neither side is likely to back down

tlevin@businessinsider.com (Tim Levin) 

4/3/2021

Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory will be the cornerstone of its European strategy. 

Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla is building a giant plant in Germany, but it hasn't yet made nice with the mighty auto union there.

IG Metall will likely make life difficult for Tesla, which hasn't agreed to the industry's collective wage agreements.

A battle with the union could threaten Tesla's ambitious plans for the European market.

As Tesla works to get its mammoth new factory in Germany up and running by the summer, disturbing delicate reptile habitats may be the least of Elon Musk's worries.

After sparring with locals over everything from water supply to deforestation, there may be an even larger threat looming: Germany's largest union.

Tesla hasn't made many friends of labor activists in the US, and the 2.2-million-strong IG Metall isn't likely to go down without a fight, experts told Insider. A prolonged battle over contracts with the group - which wields considerable political influence and social capital - could derail Tesla's ambitious plans for the European market.

A standoff over contracts

Virtually every car company operating in Germany is a member of an employers' association, and IG Metall - which represents metalworkers in the auto industry and other sectors - negotiates industry-wide contracts with the group instead of bargaining with each company individually. That system gives the country's unions considerably more negotiating power than their US counterparts, which vote to unionize plant by plant.

But there's a catch - joining the association isn't required by law, it's only customary. And Tesla has made every indication it's not interested in following that deep-rooted norm.

Tesla aims to complete Gigafactory Berlin by July. Patrick Pleul/Getty Images

The carmaker has caught heat for union-busting tactics in the US - the National Labor Relations Board ruled in March that Musk must delete an anti-union tweet and reinstate a fired employee who was part of an organizing drive - and it has signaled it's not keen on working with unions in Germany either.

Tesla ignored a letter from IG Metall inviting a dialogue last year. And it went to great lengths to pacify disgruntled union members at Tesla Grohmann Automation, an engineering firm it acquired in 2016, without entering the industry's collective agreement. Instead, the carmaker fended off a strike by giving workers a deal that was comparable to the industry-wide wage (plus stock options).

It could try to pull the same play at Gigafactory Berlin.

The stakes are high for IG Metall

But IG Metall likely wants to avoid that scenario at all costs, Stephen Silvia, a professor at American University whose research focuses on comparative labor relations, told Insider.

Allowing a massive non-union plant to build cars in Germany would set the dangerous precedent that companies don't need to engage in collective bargaining, he said. It would also mean thousands of members would potentially go without the contractually enforced job security, wages, and benefits the rest of the industry enjoys.

Read more: The true disrupter in the auto industry isn't Tesla - it's Fisker

Moreover, IG Metall stands to lose bargaining power with other automakers if it can't get Tesla to play ball, said Arthur Wheaton, an automotive industry expert at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. It's especially crucial that IG Metall preserve all the sway it can at a time when carmakers are pivoting to EV production, which, Wheaton said, requires roughly 30% fewer workers than traditional auto manufacturing.

"It's all about labor density," he said. "Every plant that opens that's not unionized hurts [IG Metall's] power."

The union can make life difficult for Tesla

Given the stakes, IG Metall is likely to employ a whole menu of strategies to bring Tesla to its side. And there's no guarantee that any of it will bear fruit. Amazon, for example, has for years resisted calls from Germany's service-sector union, Verdi, to recognize collective bargaining agreements.

Silvia, who has spoken to the union about its plans, anticipates a public relations campaign and protests to exert political and social pressure on Tesla to "be a good corporate citizen."

"It's very difficult to force a completely unwilling company," Silvia said. "They'll just have to make [Tesla's] life as uncomfortable as possible."

Tesla plans to manufacture 500,000 cars per year at the factory. Patrick Pleul/Getty Images

IG Metall could also organize rolling strikes, though there are restrictions on how long they can last and when they can occur. Grey-area "guerilla actions" - like slowing down work at a Tesla supplier where IG Metall might have members - may also be in the union's playbook, Silvia said.

IG Metall may also try to influence Tesla's leadership from within. The carmaker will be required by law to allow Gigafactory Berlin employees to form a works council - a group that represents the interests of the factory's workforce - and IG Metall could make sure it's stacked with members, according to Silvia.

Wheaton, however, thinks IG Metall's main weapon for putting the squeeze on Tesla is blocking the completion of the factory altogether. IG Metall could work with environmentalist groups to slow down construction, he said.

Since beginning work on Gigafactory Berlin in early 2020, Tesla has faced setbacks from environmental activists and regulators over issues like deforestation, water usage, and the well-being of wildlife surrounding the construction site. And it has encountered delays over procedural problems having to do with work permits and deposits.
The stakes are high for Tesla, too

The carmaker likely wants to avoid any more stumbles as it looks to get the plant, which forms the cornerstone of its European strategy, online by July. Tesla aims to eventually build 500,000 European-market cars per year and produce its next-generation battery cells at the facility, and a protracted struggle with IG Metall could impede those plans.

Getting the factory up to speed as quickly and as smoothly as possible is critical for Tesla as it works to scale production worldwide and defend its market share from a growing number of EV-making rivals, most notably German automaker Volkswagen.

Tesla did not return Insider's request for comment on whether it is open to joining the collective wage agreement.

 Tesla is "just another company" to IG Metall. Patrick Pleul/Getty Images

IG Metall, for its part, said it's approaching Tesla as it would any other manufacturer looking to open up a facility in Germany. Union representatives did not respond to Insider's request for an interview but the chairman of IG Metall Berlin Jan Otto told Insider in an emailed statement that he doesn't "feel any frustration towards Tesla and the new Gigafactory in Grünheide."

"It is our job to organize people and negotiate collective agreements once we have reached more than 60/70% of the workers. In the past, we have organized thousands of workers in new and old companies," Otto continued. "Tesla is a big player, but for us, it is just another company."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Authors of UK racism report hit back at 'misrepresentation'

LONDON — The commission behind a report that concluded that Britain doesn't have a systemic problem with racism has defended itself against critics, some of whom have argued that it downplayed the country's historic role in slavery

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

In a response late Friday, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities said disagreement with the government-backed review had “tipped into misrepresentation" and it took particular umbrage at accusations that it put a positive spin on slavery.

“This misrepresentation risks undermining the purpose of the report — understanding and addressing the causes of inequality in the U.K. — and any of the positive work that results from it," the commission said in a statement.

The Conservative government launched the commission’s inquiry into racial disparities in the wake of last year's Black Lives Matter movement. The panel of experts, which was made up of 11 members from a broad cross section of ethnic backgrounds, concluded that while “outright racism” exists in Britain, the country is not “institutionally racist” or “rigged” against minorities.

Citing strides to close gaps between ethnic groups in educational and economic achievement, the report, which was published Wednesday, said race was becoming “less important” as a factor in creating disparities that also are fueled by class and family backgrounds.

Many academics, lawmakers unions and anti-racism activists were skeptical of the findings in the 258-page report, with some claiming the commission ignored barriers to equality, while others said it downplayed the ongoing legacy of Britain's colonial past as well as its role in slavery.

David Olusoga, professor of public history at Manchester University and one of Britain's leading academics on slavery, became the latest to join in the criticism.

“Determined to privilege comforting national myths over hard historical truths, they (the panel) give the impression of being people who would prefer this history to be brushed back under the carpet,” he wrote in a piece for The Guardian newspaper published Saturday.

In their statement published before Olusoga's article, the commission said the idea it would downplay the atrocities of slavery “is as absurd as it is offensive to every one of us” and described the personal attacks on its members as “irresponsible and dangerous."

“We have never said that racism does not exist in society or in institutions," it said. "We say the contrary: racism is real and we must do more to tackle it.”

Like other countries, Britain has faced an uncomfortable reckoning with race since the death of George Floyd, a Black American, by a white police officer in May 2020, which sparked anti-racism protests around the world.

Large crowds at Black Lives Matter protests across the U.K. last summer called on the government and institutions to face up to the legacy of the British Empire and the country’s extensive profits from the slave trade.

The toppling of a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in the city of Bristol in June prompted a pointed debate about how to deal with Britain’s past. Many felt such statues extol racism and are an affront to Black Britons. Others, including the prime minister, argued that removing them was erasing a piece of history.

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press

Desperate Burmese refugees flee to Thailand and India to escape crisis

Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi and Emma Graham-Harrison 

4/3/2021 THE GUARDIAN

Myanmar’s escalating crisis is spilling across its borders, as thousands of refugees seek safe haven in India and Thailand in the wake of the military coup and bloody crackdowns on anti-coup protesters.

© Photograph: Royal Thai Army Handout/EPA Karen villagers being carried by refugees and Thai paramilitaries after crossing border at a Thai-Myanmar border in Mae Hong Son province.

Authorities in both countries have tried to block new arrivals, fearing that a steady flow may become a flood, if unrest spreading through Myanmar worsens. A top UN official warned last week that the country is “on the verge of spiralling into a failed state” if action is not taken soon to stem the bloodshed.

The catastrophic human costs of the regime’s brutal policies is visible in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees are living. Most fled after a military campaign that began in 2017, and have lived in limbo ever since.

Last week Thailand reportedly tried to push thousands of people fleeing Myanmar back across their border, after airstrikes on villages held by forces from the Karen ethnic minority.

Thai prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha admitted the country was braced for more arrivals, the Associated Press reported. “We don’t want to have mass migration into our territory, but we will consider human rights, too,” he said. “We have prepared some places, but we don’t want to talk about the preparation of refugee centres at the moment. We won’t go that far.”

At least one Indian border state backed away from an order last month to “politely turn away” any refugees attempting to cross. The home ministry of Manipur said its instructions had been “misconstrued”.

A Covid outbreak in the Chinese border city of Ruili, which authorities said they had traced back to virus cases imported from Myanmar, was another reminder of the risks of large cross-border movements of people in a pandemic era.

The UN’s refugee agency has highlighted Myanmar’s neighbours’ “decades-long history” of protecting refugees from the country, and issued a pointed warning that it is illegal under international law to block people seeking asylum.

“Children, women and men fleeing for their lives should be given sanctuary,” said Gillian Triggs, assistant high commissioner for protection at the UNHCR. “As the situation in Myanmar deteriorates further, we call on states to continue their lifesaving humanitarian tradition of safeguarding the lives of all those forced to flee.”

In India’s Mizoram state no reminders have been needed. Politicians and local residents have welcomed with open arms more than a thousand people who have hiked through forests from Myanmar and waded across rivers to seek sanctuary.


Video: Thailand stopping Myanmar refugees (Sky News)


A large number of them are policemen, who fled after refusing to obey orders to shoot at their own people during the protests, officials said.

At least 550 civilians have died, including 46 children, in protests that have shaken Myanmar’s major cities since the military took power in a February coup, a leading human rights group has said. More than 2,750 people have also been detained or sentenced, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Despite the crackdown, protesters have continued to pour onto the country’s streets, demanding the military respect the results of democratic elections held late last year, which gave opposition parties a landslide majority.

There is huge sympathy with both the protesters’ cause, and those who have fled over the border to Mizoram. Most refugees are members of the same ethnic group as local residents, known as Chin in Myanmar and Mizos in India.

“We are the same tribe. We share the same language and culture and religion – Christianity,” said Lalbin Sanga, assistant general secretary of the Mizo Students’ Union. “We all have family and blood ties because, although a border and different nationalities separate us, we are effectively the same people,”

On social media, indignant Mizos have shared pro-democracy slogans and freedom songs, and a series of fundraising street music concerts in the state capital Aizawl drew crowds of more than 3,000 and donations of 300,000 rupees (£3,000) to support refugees.  

© Provided by The Guardian Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar outside a mosque in Jammu in Kashmir, India. Photograph: Jaipal Singh/EPA

But these sentiments have put the local government on a collision course with the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party in New Delhi. It has tried to categorise many of those seeking amnesty as illegal immigrants, and taken a hard line on deportations, including drawing controversy last week for trying to deport a lone teenage Rohingya girl, whose parents are refugees in Bangladesh, back to Myanmar.

In March the national ministry of home affairs ordered Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga (who is known by one name) to check the influx of new arrivals and deport those who had already arrived.

He responded by asking home minister Amit Shah to change government policy. “I have told Amit Shah that the people who came from Myanmar are our brothers and sisters. We have family ties with most of them. Once they enter Mizoram, we have to give them food and shelter.”

Few of the refugees are any financial burden on the government, because of their extensive local ties. “The vast majority of those crossing into India don’t need help. They have moved into the homes of relatives and melted into the local population,” one local official said.

That may change if numbers grow. There are 500 kilometres of border between Mizoram and Chin and extensive ties mean large stretches are unfenced.

It has served as a safety valve for decades, with people fleeing an insurgency in India during the 1960s and 70s, then escaping from Myanmar after a previous military crackdown in 1989.

With protesters determined to keep challenging the government, and fears the situation in Myanmar could escalate into full-blown civil war, some in the region are already preparing for many new arrivals.

At least three armed groups from Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, which have long track records in guerrilla warfare against the central government, have vowed to join what they called the “spring revolution” if the crackdown continues.

The opposition are also working on an interim constitution which would include a “federal army” to replace the current military system. Although outnumbered, and outgunned, if the various opposition forces are able to come together effectively they could pose a significant challenge to the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military forces.

“The way things are going, I anticipate more people seeking refuge in Mizoram,” said Lawma Chhangte, president of the United for Democratic Myanmar NGO. “At the moment most of them are staying with relatives but we have started renting a few homes in case the numbers become too large for families here to manage.”

Haitian women protesters denounce violence, political instability
AFP 

4/3/2021

Hundreds    THOUSANDS of women protested in Haiti's capital on Saturday, denouncing gang violence and political instability that they say could lead to a new dictatorship.

© Reginald LOUISSAINT JR

 Protesters march in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on April 3, 2021

At the demonstration marking the national day for the Haitian women's movement, the protesters deplored the rising power of gangs in recent months which has led to a spike in kidnappings for ransom in Port-au-Prince and other provinces.

"The women who have been kidnapped are raped and sexually assaulted, so today we must put at the center of the debate, beyond the kidnappings, the impact of the (security) situation specifically on women," activist Pascale Solages said.

April 3 is the national day of the Haitian women's movement, marking the date in 1986 when 30,000 women marched to demand better inclusion in politics, two months after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship.

The crowd on Saturday was comprised of activists of all ages, when political protests in Haiti usually attract young men.

"What we were saying in 1986 is that democracy cannot be built without women or to their detriment. It is important to remember these slogans," said Daniele Magloire, a feminist activist.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been in a months-long political crisis.

President Jovenel Moise maintains that his term of office runs until February 7, 2022, but others claim it ended on February 7, 2021.

The disagreement stems from the fact that Moise was elected in a vote that was cancelled for fraud, and then re-elected a year later.

Without a parliament, the country fell further into crisis in 2020 and Moise is governing by decree, fuelling growing mistrust of him.

Amid the instability, Moise has said he plans to hold a constitutional referendum in June.

"They are talking about a referendum but we do not need a new constitution where they sprinkle in two, three cosmetic measures, while all the power will be concentrated in the hands of the executive, with a president who will have total immunity during and after his mandate," protested Gaelle Bien Aime

© Reginald LOUISSAINT JR The protesters deplored the rising power of gangs which has led to a spike in kidnappings for ransom in Port-au-Prince and other provinces

"We are in the street to fight impunity -- so many men, including in the spheres of power, who beat their wives, who rape," the 30-year-old said.

"I was not yet born in 1986 and I am very annoyed to have to be here 35 years later in the street fighting the same fights," she said.

amb/vgr/acb/st

UK's elite schools face a reckoning on rape culture

By Nina dos Santos and Lauren Kent, CNN 

4/3/2021

Nine years after being assaulted by a boy she alleges was a student at Eton College, Zan Moon can still remember the moment as if it was yesterday.

© Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou, CNN Ribbons tied to the gates of James Allen's Girls' School, the sister school of Dulwich College.

"I can picture the hallway where it happened, his hands around my neck choking me," she says. "Then he put his hands down my pants... It was painful. I told him to stop."

Moon says the five-hour attack took place outside of school in a secluded cottage on England's South Coast, rented for the weekend by a friend at the elite girls' boarding school she attended: Benenden. She was 15 then.

Boys from the two all-male schools the girls often socialized with -- Eton and Tonbridge -- were also there and saw her fight her aggressor off multiple times. Yet no one intervened, she says.

"We're privileged kids, but despite all the money that goes on the maths and lacrosse lessons, not a penny is spent in these schools teaching students about their right to be safe from this type of behavior, which is a disgrace," Moon remembers of her school days.

"And it's important we talk about this because these are the men who will in some cases go on to run the country," she adds.

Eton, which has educated numerous British prime ministers, including the incumbent Boris Johnson, and Princes William and Harry, told CNN by email that it does run workshops on healthy relationships, teaching pupils about consent. It said it always takes specific allegations extremely seriously, supporting those affected and working with the police and children's services, when appropriate.

"Safeguarding the welfare of young people is our highest priority," said Eton in a statement. "All involved in education have a responsibility to recognize that we can and must do more so as to effect meaningful and sustained change, for the benefit of all young people."

The school did not address CNN's specific questions about what Zan Moon has alleged.


'Rape Culture'

Like a growing number of young women in the UK, Moon is speaking out about her experiences -- and soliciting the memories of others -- to smash the stigma of discussing a "rape culture" which they say is rife in schools.

What has burst forth is a chorus of anger, drowning out the deafening silence that previously surrounded the issue of sexual violence among school children.

After compiling a 15-page dossier of alleged incidents at multiple institutions, Moon wrote an open letter to the heads of Eton, Tonbridge and others, serving them notice on the "chauvinism" that she said "runs deep inside the UK's private boys schools." "It ends now," she wrote.

James Priory, the headmaster of Tonbridge, expressed "significant concern" after reading Moon's letter, saying in a statement that such behaviors had no place in his school. Tonbridge also said in a statement that it teaches consent to its pupils and refers incidents to the authorities when necessary.

"'We will be listening carefully to our students, staff and alumni, as well as to anyone who has contacted us directly from outside the School, in establishing what more we can do to ensure that sexual harassment and abuse are never accepted and that everyone will feel supported and able to come forward if they wish to," it said.

Moon's letter follows the initiative Everyone's Invited, a website that has garnered more than 13,000 testimonials detailing rape culture in British schools from current and former students.

They include accounts of 10-year-olds being catcalled, 12-year-olds being sexted, and disturbing allegations of rape -- all well below the UK's legal age of consent at 16 years old. The testimonies also include allegations of incidents at state schools and universities, highlighting the pervasive nature of harassment and violence against women in the UK -- an issue recently thrown into sharp relief by the killing of 33-year-old Londoner Sarah Everard, attacked while walking home from a friend's house.

"It's a lot wider than just the schools that have been named," says Everyone's Invited founder Soma Sara, a Londoner and former student of Wycombe Abbey girls' school. "There is a culture within our whole society of acceptance of sexual aggression and harassment. It's a culture that trivializes and normalized the worst behaviors and that can create an environment where sexual violence can exist and thrive."


A new helpline and action promised

On Thursday, the UK's Department for Education launched a new helpline to support potential victims of sexual harassment and abuse in educational settings. The government also announced an immediate review of safeguarding policies in state and independent schools. Meanwhile, London's Metropolitan Police are investigating several specific offences in relation to allegations on Everyone's Invited, and police are encouraging sexual assault survivors to speak out and seek support.

"We have subsequently received a number of reports of specific offences.

In addition, where schools have been named on this website, officers are making contact with those schools and offering specialist support for any potential victims of sexual assaults," wrote the Metropolitan Police in a press release.

"We understand the complex and varied reasons why many victim-survivors do not contact law enforcement, but I want to personally reassure anyone who needs our help that we are absolutely here for you," said The Met's lead for rape and sexual offences, Detective Superintendent Mel Laremore.

The anonymous nature of the posts shared on such platforms makes it hard to look into claims unless they are specific.

Individual schools have also launched investigations. Highgate School in north London -- where girls in Year 11 (aged 15/16) and above held a walkout in protest -- has commissioned an immediate external review of the sexual abuse and harassment allegations raised by student testimonies. It said in a statement:

"We are deeply shocked and horrified by the allegations that have recently come to light. The Highgate they describe runs entirely contrary to the values of our whole community ... We are truly sorry."

King's College School in Wimbledon, southwest London, also commissioned an independent review and said it will not accept any form of abuse or discrimination.

"The school has established a system to handle disclosures made by pupils, past or present and to offer support, and we urge anyone affected by these issues to come forward," it said.

The Everyone's Invited website has since stopped posting the names of schools alongside testimonies, but the debate continues. While hundreds of schools were named on the site, some current and former students, Like Moon -- have written open letters to headteachers, detailing their experiences of misogyny, abuse, and sexual violence.

One letter, penned by former Dulwich College student Samuel Schulenburg, accused the south London boys' school of being a "breeding ground for sexual predators." The letter was written to his former headmaster to raise awareness of problems at Dulwich, and detailed anonymous stories of sexual violence and harassment put forward by girls at James Allen's Girls School (JAGS), the sister school of Dulwich College.

In response to the open letter and anonymous allegations, Dulwich College headmaster Joe Spence said in a statement, "The behavior described is distressing and entirely unacceptable; we condemn it unreservedly."

"Whilst we cannot comment on anonymous testimonies, any specific and evidenced allegations will be addressed, and we will involve external authorities where appropriate," Spence added. "As a boys' school the first thing we must do is listen to what women and girls are telling us about their experiences and their concerns, but we also have a particular part to play, as educators of boys, in making a difference."


Victims asked to move schools

The Children's Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said in a statement that "there is no excuse" for any school failing to follow safeguarding guidelines and offer victims support. Activists and women's campaigners say more preventative education is also needed in schools -- well before the onset of puberty.

"I think there's a lack of severity taken when disclosures are made. So often in schools, it will be brushed under the carpet," said Elizabeth Brailsford, herself a former headteacher now with Solace Women's Aid, a charity that supports survivors of sexual violence and conducts educational workshops in schools.

"Every time we go in to do a series of our sessions on healthy relationships, we'll get young people that come forward and tell us about experiences that they've had," Brailsford said. She added that it's "too common" for schools to suggest that girls who come forward with disclosures leave the school, "even though they're not the one that perpetrated the sexual assault."

Women's rights campaigners say that's little surprise in a country where sexual violence is now prosecuted at a much lower rate than in years gone by.

Rape prosecution rates dropped by 30% between 2019-2020 compared with the previous year, according to data from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). More than 55,000 cases of rape were recorded in 2019-2020 but only 1.4% resulted in a charge or summons, the CPS data said.

Sexual assault, rape, and attempted sexual violence often goes unreported, and it's difficult to quantity experiences of rape culture more broadly. Fewer than 16% of victims in England and Wales report their experience of assault to the police, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). But among women aged 16 to 74, more than one in 20 (6.2%) have experienced rape or attempted rape, while 4.8% have experienced assault by penetration.

Meanwhile, 58% of girls aged 14 to 21 say they have been publicly sexually harassed in their learning environment, according to a new survey from Plan International, a global children's charity.

"I only realized fairly recently that most of the sexual relationships I had when I was younger were not what I would describe as consensual," says Moon.

"The whole top private school system is set up to protect the boy's prospects and the school's reputation. That's the priority," Moon said. "What happens to us girls doesn't matter to them."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the age of the girls who protested at Highgate School. They were aged 15/16 and upwards.

© CNN Some of the UK's top academic institutions are facing a reckoning on rape culture through anonymous testimonials posted on a website called Everyone's Invited.